Episode #272: When Accuracy Really Matters In The Short Run

Still one of my favorite Mamacita & Son doggo pics.

 I've always been a research fanatic, even back in my young adult years when I used to study reference books and encyclopedias for fun (seriously). That fanaticism carried me well into my working adult years.

That same dogged determination from my work life carried over to my writing life, where I began to research like a fiend for my novels and novellas. Because as you know, nothing screams NEWBIE! when you open a book from a first time novelist and find all kinds of continuity errors/common sense errors/general knowledge errors. All of which stemmed from a lack of basic research into whatever topic that particular story happens to be written about.

Today's post is not about the abnormal amount of research that I've done for my novels and novellas, because I'm pretty sure that you really do not want to hear even a smidgen about. Instead, I'm going to be writing about all of the fun research that I had to do for my latest short story project. 

Note: I actually got motivated to start writing short stories again, as I was 99% caught up my current novella, so I was basically treading water while I was getting my finances back in order (courtesy of USPS and their suddenly slip-shoddy delivery service) and while trying to think of a good hook for my novella.

I believe accuracy is important in whatever story length/genre you happen to be writing in, especially if you're creating short stories. I mean, no matter what the topic of choice is for your short story, you want to sound like you know what you're writing about, because ignorance is not bliss when it comes to writing.

So, in no particular order of importance, I want to highlight what I had to research for the nine completed short stories and the one that I had just started on. Enjoy!

1. Story #1: An original bizarre fantasy/horror story that was written during the early months of mandatory WFH, so no real research was performed beyond my state agency's basic WFH requirements.
2. Story #2: A re-written short story from my early blogging years, no real research was performed beyond digging deep into my memory banks about the area/landmarks in my local neighborhood.
3. Story #3: A re-written short story from my very early writing adventures. Again, no real research was performed beyond recycling a few fictitious business names.
4. Story #4: A re-written fantasy short story that was originally published in my now closed short story blog. Once again, no real research was performed.

I promise, this does get better. It's kind of hard to do research on re-written short stories that do not deviate much from the original premise.

1. Story #5: A re-written short story that was based on a biblical verse. I had to redo some basic research, as each section of the story was based on one sentence from the verse in question. A bit dark, but I think it blends quite nicely with the verse in question.
2. Story #6: A completely re-written short story that used the very bad original as a basic outline for the new and improved version. This is something of a dark fantasy story that featured hybrid humans of maybe the werewolf kind, as well as a tiny bit of religion (including a biblical verse or two), so the research was a little more than what I did for the previous stories.
3. Story #7: A re-written short story that is a black humor fantasy. Research on Aztec religious rites were key elements to the writing of this story.
4. Story #8: A re-written short story that mostly kept the dark theme of the original fantasy. No real research was done for the story beyond a shallow dive in the memory banks for certain concepts.
5. Story #9: An original story that explored, in a very roundabout way, the adult entertainment industry (much like my novel "The Inner Sibling" did). So we had to dig very deep into my memory banks for various articles about what goes into making an adult movie. A few elements from my recently completed five volume fantasy series were featured in this story: telepathy and intraspace transportation. I think the most challenging part of this story was writing the explicit sex scenes PG-13, which if you think about it, is not an easy task to accomplish.
6. Story #10: This will also be a completely re-written short story, with the badly written original serving as a very basic outline. Because of the way the main character was dispatched in the original story (beheading), we decided to take that particular ending and go to town with it. We have researched, so far: Japanese girl names and samurai swords (because the main character is a female samurai). So this story is going to be a blast to write and a blast to research.

I know it doesn't seem like I did a ton of research the second time around with the bulk of the short stories listed, but the second around I did make sure that what I was writing did make sense in the long run. Even though each story is fictional, I still needed to be accurate with my portrayals of the three noun groups of life (person, place, thing), and I think I did a very good job with each of the stories listed.

So my question to you the reader is: do you have fun researching the required information needed for your short stories, or do you perform the absolute bare minimum for your short stories?

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