I started a horror comedy comic with a cannibal character and for someone as squeamish as me, I feel like everything I research makes me uncomfortable. I'm greatly disturbed by all the real world cannibal stories that everyone keeps sending me. Also every time I look up images for reference drawing I have to be really careful how I word it because those searches can be really risky for me.
But in particular, just the other day I learned a lot of details about what happens to bodies that need autopsies... Let's just say I'm happy I never became a medical examiner... that job is really not for me.
This is probably the most disturbing thing in my search history (so far):
"How do human trafficking works during the 17th century"
"Are there some humans being auctioned during the 17th century?"
followed by auction terminologies, flower languages and different types of medicinal plants who were suddenly banned, poison plants and their effects, crest and signet rings stuffs, how to preserve a body longer and stuffs like that
--- It's for a scene in my story and it's the opening scene,( it was set in dark fantasy btw) where the MC should've been a consignor for the auction but he was suddenly auctioned instead....
Probably the Poison stuff, because I mainly did it with my school account and not realising it. Till I got the e-mail form the dean
Also it took me an awful lot of time to find the right poison
And I will never forget the hours it took me to get all the correct names from the right century, things I should know but also don't know
My FBI agent probably sits in front of his PC and just thinks "How did this girl get into a good University?" and shakes his head
Historical-Fantasy BL
Only few of these have appeared in the series, and in the series I consider my portrayal is tame as my series is light-hearted. Still, I give a bit warning and I put it under spoiler.
Spoiler
Topics: miscarriage, birth defects, ways to self-harm, necrophilia, and grooming.
What would people think of me looking at pictures of stillborn babies and miscarried fetuses? Normal people look for images of healthy and alive babies, right? What will people think of me looking at those? For the upcoming chapter I am looking for a syndrome because it will be vaguely portrayed; for some, said syndrome might be a bit disturbing.
About the last two mentioned, no shit that I am feeling uncomfortable researching that
A lot of alcohol questions for the upcoming part two of my novel:
- How to open a wine bottle without a bottle opener (with your shoe, apparently)
- How many servings in the average bottle of wine?
- HOW MUCH WINE CAN YOU DRINK BEFORE IT STARTS TO KILL YOU????
so... yeah. Not too uncomfortable for me, but not exactly something I want on my search history, you know?
It's not uncomfy, it was just a little new and interesting for me to research different kinds of pacemakers and how exactly heart conditions and cardiac arrests work or happen, as my main character has a heart condition. But I love researching and learning new stuff for my story, so it was just super interesting.
None of this was particularly uncomfortable for me, just would look questionable in my search history:
- the fastest and easiest way to kill someone with a knife, ensuring they cannot retaliate
- what actually happens when kneecaping someone
- where to shoot someone in the leg so they can still move and won't bleed out
- the best way to describe a prostate orgasm
(One of these things is not like the others...)
mean I've been writing gore since Elementary school so none of that is particularly uncomfortable for me. and I did most of the research back in highschool.
But my story is about sexual assault straight up, since my MC is a male I needed to read about a lot of different male experiences of sexual assault how they cope with it etc cause boy brains work differently than girl brain and I have girl brain. guys act different and I thought I'd try to get that accurate.
Cause writing it based off JUST my experiences and knowledge of the topic it simply wouldn't work and frankly I don't want to write about my own life.
Also had to google how creepers usually get their victims and how they act around children etc etc. That probably put me on a list.
also a lot of firsthand kidnapping stories.
Learning that the media tries to turn the survivors of kidnappings into celebrities instead of leaving them the fuck alone made its way into my story. (ex its the 5th anniversary of the famous JANE DOE case!!! and there's like a million news articles about it, and what happened with hardly any updates on their life. I read one article that straight up doxxed a kidnapping survivor. its gross.)
FBI: looks at my search history and doesn't care but gets madder about pirated movies lmao do ur job feds