Research and Writing

Also cross-posted from the Den of Shadows writing section.

Ahh, research. I love and hate research. I love it when I'm finding out things I didn't know before and and add some depth to my world, but I hate it when I have to research stuff I don't really care about to make my story seem more realistic.

Like when I first created Kitsu, I did a lot of research on the kitsune mythology, as well as Korean and Chinese fox mythology. I found some good stuff that I was able to incorporate into my character for the game I was in, I found some stuff that was complete crap, and I found some stuff that I would have liked to incorporate, but it didn't fit the world that I was role-playing in, nor does it fit the world that I'm writing her novel in.

For this book, I've researched wormholes, naked singularities, hydroponics, cloning and stem cells, Dyson spheres, astrology/zodiac signs, human population, number of stars in the galaxy, habitable planets, sci fi/futuristic weapons and armor (soldiers of the future), foxes, other wild canines and felines, other people's interpretation of shapeshifters, and anime where one of the characters uses a weapon like Kitsu's. There's probably a lot more, but that's all I can remember for now.

What's kind of weird is that when I look at this list and try to think about all the stuff I actually needed to research, it makes me wonder how I even built this world in the first place, because now all the little details seem to fit so smoothly together.

Though I still have more research to do. Like right now I'm working on this trial scene, and I'm too lazy to research various court room dramas and how different court systems work in different countries, so I can mash something together for this world. I'm thinking that's some research that will wait for the rewrite.