I think this just about sums it up lol

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i look up wikipedia for mythological creatures, ideas. ^^

coughs I uh...had to research psychological trauma, abuse and gaslighting. Also had to research depersonalization, hallucinations due to mental trauma and cultural abuse.

...My novel is gonna be a happy story eventually! ...Somewhere. XD

Strangest research hole me ever fell into was probably "homosexuality among medieval Scandinavians."

Self-harm obviously, a bit of internet harassment culture which I already read for "fun", but the biggest things are medieval (up to 1600s) inventions and how they came to be. I didn't want too much anachronism for Splitting Image, but I had to know where I should be turning comfortable concepts into magitek, such as water and waste distribution, types of furniture, materials, and some pieces of the culture.

For example, medieval-era furniture didn't have a whole lot of cushioning because of christian ideas of laziness at the time - comfort means you're moving away from spiritual connection. Aeolia is VERY removed from any christianity influence, so it was interesting to put supposedly anachronistic cushioned chairs and the like there, while still keeping things like no crazy designs and looking sturdy to believably be something humans, elves, orcs etc. could all use if needed. Another example is houses - you couldn't have huge buildings with many stories unless they were full of pillars or made of stone, so I can explain poor people having two or three story houses with earth magic, but not push the suspension of disbelief with more than that.

Weirdest search was probably the history of underwear and sleeping garments. As someone who's only heard about pajamas for all my life and was ready to put them in with some simpler designs, the concept of a unisex chemise was very strange to discover.

My dudes, I had a three hour discussion with a cheesemonger about cheese. There is so much chemistry and science that goes into cheese, I had no idea. Then I watched videos about cheese from around the world, then I talked to the same person again, this time about goat breeds for milk yield vs. milk taste, and what the goats should eat for best milk taste, and why it's better to buy registered goats. Then we talked even more about the cheesemaking process, including aging caves and different kids of vats/pressing??

I'm going to have the most well-researched short story about lesbians on a farm EVER.

So, no, I can't really recommend any resources that would be useful to anyone else. Unless you want your characters to run a creamery. Then I got you covered.

Did she let you sample her caprino ?

hahahaha! omg I wish.

I was drooling during the entire conversation, absolutely craving some cheese. And of course I had no cheese in the fridge. Oh, cruel fate...

I'm guilty of just using Wikipedia for all of my stuff. I don't do deep dives since I tend to bastardize whatever I'm researching into a Frankenstein's monster of barely recognizable semblances.

For example, a dig into Norse mythology (on Wikipedia) had me turning Ymir and the Frost Giants into a fuzzy lemur-bigfoot hybrid, with absolutely no magical property XD

Currently I'm diving into this list of Yokai for both an RP setting and a possible Dragon Sparking novel!

As well as a dig into...this period from Japan's history

Well Japan...I'm sorry...but what kind of story I'm gonna tell will barely resemble any of that lore and history. For starters, no humans. All of the mortals are gonna be Dino people, while the ruling class will all be Yokai with ambitions to become Kami on a floating island shaped like the Gifu Prefecture ᕙ(＠°▽°＠)ᕗ

I won't even pretend to say I do deep research. It's all surface and whatever metal song I'm listening to at the time, smashed together!

HAHAHAHAHA.

I appreciate this post.

@DualDragons I don't xD

@Kaylim I aim to please.

The most relevant stuff I've researched I think have been:

• Medical drugs (anxiolitics mainly. I went for lorazepam thanks to a medic friend's advice) and its consequences if they're overused

• Long term, almost complete isolation's consequences (which I discussed with a psychologist friend. Cheers for my very smart friends who help me out a lot lmao) (I obviously did my own research on both of these topics)

I tend to focus way more in characters and story than in worldbuilding. Now I really need to do research about military training tho.

Generally I'll google stuff or use Wikipedia.
Like I've been doing a lot of research into mythologies and the like, so for most of that I google stuff till I find some decent websites or use the reputable links on Wikipedia.

My latest weird research was 'the most valuable rock music records'. Did you know that a vinyl of Prince's The Black Album from 1987 has been sold for $27,500?

Other searches I've recently done: 'how to make a hickey', 'how quickly hickeys fade', 'how to make hickey fade faster', 'what counts as slander' and 'sunday lunch recipes'

Sunday lunch sound like fun.

I ended up reading up a lot of Bigfoot hunting websites looking for stories.

at least these websites were pretty sure they did.

And if they don't find Bigfoot, it no longer Bigfoot genre. It tragedy.

I dig RPG gaming books as a quick reference and idea generators.

I did spend a fascinating few hours picking a city engineer's brain once. Asking all about different hidden factors that weigh into city design. That was cool.

I once researched "the worst fighting stance possible" just for the sake of a joke.......It was absolutely worth it.

Was it crab-walking? Me bet it was crab-walking.

At least the crab-walking has some stability from being close to the floor. This one is worse XD

The......car shop ballon man stance!!!!!

You are very welcome, ancestor.

This evening, I researched different shapes of antique and medieval pickaxes.

As a generality, my comic researches are less weird that my non-comic research

@33rdCenturyCaveman I used to own a book on homosexuality in medieval Scandinavia. Or at least there was a chapter on that? Long time ago. But interesting subject.

Yeah, on one hand accusing a Viking of being catcher was deadly insult. On other hand, being a bottom was associated with practice of magic, Odin's purview. On one hand there was overriding need for every fertile man and woman to do their part. On other hand people cared less what you did when you were older.

Names of pills, average heights...
I think the wildest thing I ever searched for was how long it takes for a body to decomposed and how the melt finger tips... And how to obtain weapons and how much force you have to use to tear someone's head off (It's about 9500 Newtons).

I always enjoy researching really mundane things done in the past such as when soap was invented and how people did the laundry, you learn a lot about how difficult some things used to be and how dirty people were..
I've also had to research skin diseases which doesn't have very fun pictures loll.

Whenever I go on Wikipedia to look up one thing I get stuck for hours learning random stuff, but most the time it does end up with something new I can work with for my stories.

Just a reminder to not stick to just wikipedia when researching really specific things. I've been on a binge of reading ancient polytheistic religions and civilizations for mental references on the comic (what's acceptable in polytheism, etc), and you go 8 to 80 on article quality. Pretty sure there were a few that looked like they were written by armchair historians with no sources and with sentences like "which had obvious results". No you're writing an article you fool, there's no "obvious". If the article looks really shallow, always try to follow any source left around or just see what Google gets you in general.

And if you're on mythology in general, there's usually a site with good sources or is THE place for original texts. Always love Theoi for any greek stuff.

I don't go further than Wikipedia, simply because I'm not interested in authenticity. My goal is usually to find base ideas that I can change to suit my own imagination. I'm aware that this might be culturally insensitive, but I'm writing total fiction in alternate realities, it can be whatever I want.

But. If I were to write a paper, or do a serious work of historical fiction then I'd definitely do more in depth research. Honestly though, I wouldn't write something like that, because I'm not really interested in it.

Then there's the other part...I find research to be tedious and I just don't want to spend much time on it. This annoys my wife, who is a history major xD.

I've done a lot of research into poisons, gunshot wounds, trauma etc., the usual "I swear I'm a writer" stuff. I've also spent days researching the kind of cars my OC would drive, only to imply they're there. I also studied a lot of cryptography for my previous story, and also read up on ancient civilasations and things. Also, due to some of my characters being multilingual, I've studied syntax and grammar on a bunch of languages, and with some tools can build some simple sentences.
Sometimes I think I spend too much time on research.