Research in Writing #3 – Location part 2

While we were on the topic of weather in the last lesson, it looks like I forgot to mention my fascination with coordinates and elevation. I often look up the latitude of the location (which affects weather and amount of daylight/darkness), as well as the elevation. In the responses to lesson 2 homework, someone mentioned the elevation as a factor in considering weather. Generally speaking, typing in “coordinates” or “elevation” with the city name will bring up Google’s quick answer. If there’s something unusual about the result, a more detailed search will provide more information (e.g., the ramifications of portions of New Orleans lying below sea level).

On the topic of maps and distances, Google has basic converters for just about every measurement imaginable. I used an acre to square mile converter this morning. In the search bar type in a question such as “how many x is there to one y” and it should bring it up.

In a couple of books I’ve read lately, the main character looks out the window so there are two scenes (again, visualize a stage set), the immediate surroundings of the room where the character is and why that person is there, and his/her thoughts or reflections or reactions to what is happening in the scene outside. Just another way to think about setting. Keeping it simple, though, the character present in the actual setting, in what ways does the environment pull at the character? and what conflict(s), if any, does it present? We talked about that some already in lesson 2.

One specific setting that I placed in my novel is a college campus. My thanks to the person who set me straight on “backpack” versus “book bag” in a historical setting! In all my college searches I was unable to confirm the wording. However, I did find college catalogs from the 1940s that have been scanned, which helped inform the types of things my character might be learning as well as typical school calendars and exam dates (not too different from those today but good to know). I also discovered what academic information was available, and I think someone mentioned that as well – how things have changed, or how they were different, from one time period to another. This can also shed light on how people thought about things at that time in history.

For those who want to include anything academic in setting, here are a few links to get your thought process started.

Many colleges offer a history section on their home (.edu) page.

Along similar lines, what information was general knowledge at different time periods, many magazines have archives. It takes a little searching, but I’ve been surprised what I can find. Bear in mind that technical fields have their own journals for specific topics and subjects. Here are a few examples (the main character was an agriculture major).

I haven’t tried this personally, but it looks like a good link to add to our list.

Now that I’ve mentioned a library, let’s mention the granddaddy of them all:

Library of Congress

What a way to get sidetracked! Photos, oh my!

More photos

historical photos Los Angeles

More archives from the government:

In this same general category we might place manuals and other print/digital materials from organizations. For instance, there are many health organizations with public information available about medical issues and research. Some of you have already used these for physical challenges your characters face. If I’m gathering general information on a larger scale, I sometimes use Center for Disease Control, although it’s more useful as a starting point .

There are organizations on various health and fitness topics as well. For example, the whole grains council.

Food / harvest / what’s in season & when

The USDA has a handy chart of produce in season for each time of year.

Here I am, talking about food again. As you know, I love researching (and writing about) food. In one of my Nano ideas to be pursued in January, food will have to practically be a character, because for the main character, “it’s all about the food!” It must be time to tackle this in our research! I’ve heard the advice—you probably have, too—not to have too many sitting-at-the-table-eating scenes in a novel. I did actually keep a tally so my characters engaged in a variety of activities. But let’s face it, food is a vital part of our lives, preferably on a consistent basis more than once a day! If we’re not sitting at a table eating it, we might be shopping for it, growing it, packing it to take with us when we meet someone else, cooking it, or learning about it in a different cultural setting.

Speaking of food, this morning I researched to write a piece about food for the math book. I wanted something very specific – how long did it take me to find what I wanted? I was looking for a healthy example, that could be used in math, so it should be served in round or rectangle pan that can be divided neatly into pieces. Oh, and it had to be an example I haven’t used before or hasn’t been used to death (i.e., no pizza). Ok, my first google search, “unusual foods” turned up weird rabbit trails. My second search, “interesting foods” turned up much better sounding dishes. I clicked on a news site ( and read the first 2 or 3 entries which reminded me of a (similar) food I tried when in Slovakia. Common enough ingredients to be realistic, healthy (potatoes, not too sweet), yet unusual enough that not every sixth grader would have tried it: potato pancake. And it’s flat and round. So now I can do a specific search for “potato pancake.” Total time invested so far: maybe 10 minutes, at most. I include this detailed example to show how we can start from a general search to get just enough to jump to more specific searches.

So, here are a few links to get you started.

Something else we do a lot of in our daily lives is move from place to place. Depending on the time period of the story, that might take different forms. However, for almost 100 years, a primary form of transportation in this country has been motor vehicles. I read an interesting article about trying to avoid the tendency to stereotype an antagonist (black clothes, black cars, etc.). When researching cars (Google images) for the year(s) in question, I looked for cars that weren’t black, but still colors that might be widely in use. I found a great classy car for the antagonist: a gray sedan. A good classic car encyclopedia is handy, but I found the Internet (Google images) to be much more complete.

Since I was writing also about a different culture (Navajo) I had great fun learning about foods and other traditions shared by those people. This could hold true even for different regions of the country, among the “melting pot” that makes up our society today.

Off topic: someone was researching mission agencies.

Here are a couple of links from my files (haven’t gone back to check them)

This is a little shorter, as it’s Friday night and my shoulder is Done with the computer for today. 

Homework

1. How do the philosophy / thought processes of the society and time period for your story affect the character(s)?

2. What great sites have you found for historical or current photos and images? We’re all researching settings in different areas but may have found links that could be good starting points.

3. What role does food play in the story? And how does it affect the character(s)?

4. What research links have been helpful for you on these topics:

* philosophy / academics

* photographs

* food