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I'm approaching 11, 000 words on my Big Bang. I've discovered that while Castiel is possibly the biggest pain in my ass ever, Uriel is kind of a blast. I'm suddenly really looking forward to writing my ending and Uriel's reaction to my big reveal. Sadly, I think Castiel is just going to stand there, nod, and realise that it all makes sense while everyone else kind of explodes.
Anyway, this fic is turning out, in many ways, to be similar to The Sour for The Sweet, in that there are a lot of little case fics surrounding the greater mytharc. (And yeah, Sam's also a supernatural being that has choice and yellow eyes and is hated by angels and kind of rogue... but that's not what this is about.)
While I don't recommend Wikipedia to be anyone's be all and end all of research, it's a great place to jump start ideas. I like my Winchesters (and my original characters in original fiction) to hunt/deal with creatures and things that people actually believe(d) in. Luckily, there's no end to what people will believe. So, I give you the List of Monsters, divided up by region. Don't disregard the links at the bottom! Cryptids are listed separately! (Their list is here, listed alphabetically.) Fearsome Critters are from North American folklore and listed separately. The List of Legendary Creatures is also separate and useful (alphabetical and with short, informational tags). There is some overlap in these lists, of course, but plenty appear only on one list.
While I generally research a little further than Wikipedia, these are great starting points for coming up with fearsome creatures. (Some are more unbelievable than others. I didn't make up the buffalo that shits fire, but I wish I did.)
(Seriously, don't disregard the usefulness of Wikipedia as a root source, especially if you do further research or are just building on it for fictive purposes. If you are exploring other lines, Wikipedia's List of Angels (with tags), List of Enochian Angels, List of Theological Demons, List of Fictional Demons are all lists that I've found useful. Wikipedia also looks at the hierarchy of angels in different sects. There's also a hierarchy of demons and the classification of demons.)
I'm not suggesting that anyone should be married to information pulled from a source like this, but they can be a fount of ideas and a source. I know I tend to write more confidently when I'm pulling from a source, even if I'm doing it only in the most esoteric way (as with Lix Tetrax). I usually, as a writer, like to rely on things in which people really believe or believed - I feel that it adds something valid when I'm writing something off in Crazy Speculative Fiction Land. I function that way as a reader as well. It's one of the reasons that I will always prefer Neil Gaiman's well researched American Gods to a lot of modern vampire novels (there is nothing remotely believable in them - no one ever actually believed in vampires like Edward Cullen) and why I find Tolkien's writing to some of the only world-building fantasy I can stomach. (And no, research doesn't automatically makes someone a great writer, but it's certainly a better start than Make Believe Medieval Land With Friendly Dragons Who Are Fluffy.)
I personally love researching. It's one of my favorite parts of writing. I've been gathering sources for my Mongolian Steampunk for a long time and am looking forward to starting it back up in late spring. It's Speculative Fiction in Real Medieval Land, which is hard (goddamn Monoglian nomenclature for one), but it's work I really enjoy. It makes my writing something of which I can be proud even if it never sees the light of day (although when the Mongolian Steampunk is done and I've done years of research and played with post-colonial theory and medieval religious practices and cultures and nomenclatures and researched steam power and engineering, you'd better be sure that I'll be doing my damnedest to publish it). Having roots in the real world, in my opinion, is what can keep the most out there of speculative fiction (or fanfiction) from totally losing its readers.
As a final note, I've seen some fanwriters who say, "Oh, I'm lazy, I just made up the creatures/demons/whatevers in this fic" (particularly in the Supernatural fandom, but in others that involve crazy things, like the few times I've ventured into Buffy). Is this laziness? In my opinion, it's a lot easier for me to go to Wikipedia, type in "list of monsters" and click on Woodwose under Medieval England Beastiary and Heraldic Beasts than to go to all of the bother and energy to make something up wholesale. Thoughts? (On the other hand, lack of the research is why I don't do a lot of world-building fantasy reading because that is laziness. But researching the medieval world =/= clicking a Wikipedia link. My standards are way too high in that realm.)
Anyway, this fic is turning out, in many ways, to be similar to The Sour for The Sweet, in that there are a lot of little case fics surrounding the greater mytharc. (And yeah, Sam's also a supernatural being that has choice and yellow eyes and is hated by angels and kind of rogue... but that's not what this is about.)
While I don't recommend Wikipedia to be anyone's be all and end all of research, it's a great place to jump start ideas. I like my Winchesters (and my original characters in original fiction) to hunt/deal with creatures and things that people actually believe(d) in. Luckily, there's no end to what people will believe. So, I give you the List of Monsters, divided up by region. Don't disregard the links at the bottom! Cryptids are listed separately! (Their list is here, listed alphabetically.) Fearsome Critters are from North American folklore and listed separately. The List of Legendary Creatures is also separate and useful (alphabetical and with short, informational tags). There is some overlap in these lists, of course, but plenty appear only on one list.
While I generally research a little further than Wikipedia, these are great starting points for coming up with fearsome creatures. (Some are more unbelievable than others. I didn't make up the buffalo that shits fire, but I wish I did.)
(Seriously, don't disregard the usefulness of Wikipedia as a root source, especially if you do further research or are just building on it for fictive purposes. If you are exploring other lines, Wikipedia's List of Angels (with tags), List of Enochian Angels, List of Theological Demons, List of Fictional Demons are all lists that I've found useful. Wikipedia also looks at the hierarchy of angels in different sects. There's also a hierarchy of demons and the classification of demons.)
I'm not suggesting that anyone should be married to information pulled from a source like this, but they can be a fount of ideas and a source. I know I tend to write more confidently when I'm pulling from a source, even if I'm doing it only in the most esoteric way (as with Lix Tetrax). I usually, as a writer, like to rely on things in which people really believe or believed - I feel that it adds something valid when I'm writing something off in Crazy Speculative Fiction Land. I function that way as a reader as well. It's one of the reasons that I will always prefer Neil Gaiman's well researched American Gods to a lot of modern vampire novels (there is nothing remotely believable in them - no one ever actually believed in vampires like Edward Cullen) and why I find Tolkien's writing to some of the only world-building fantasy I can stomach. (And no, research doesn't automatically makes someone a great writer, but it's certainly a better start than Make Believe Medieval Land With Friendly Dragons Who Are Fluffy.)
I personally love researching. It's one of my favorite parts of writing. I've been gathering sources for my Mongolian Steampunk for a long time and am looking forward to starting it back up in late spring. It's Speculative Fiction in Real Medieval Land, which is hard (goddamn Monoglian nomenclature for one), but it's work I really enjoy. It makes my writing something of which I can be proud even if it never sees the light of day (although when the Mongolian Steampunk is done and I've done years of research and played with post-colonial theory and medieval religious practices and cultures and nomenclatures and researched steam power and engineering, you'd better be sure that I'll be doing my damnedest to publish it). Having roots in the real world, in my opinion, is what can keep the most out there of speculative fiction (or fanfiction) from totally losing its readers.
As a final note, I've seen some fanwriters who say, "Oh, I'm lazy, I just made up the creatures/demons/whatevers in this fic" (particularly in the Supernatural fandom, but in others that involve crazy things, like the few times I've ventured into Buffy). Is this laziness? In my opinion, it's a lot easier for me to go to Wikipedia, type in "list of monsters" and click on Woodwose under Medieval England Beastiary and Heraldic Beasts than to go to all of the bother and energy to make something up wholesale. Thoughts? (On the other hand, lack of the research is why I don't do a lot of world-building fantasy reading because that is laziness. But researching the medieval world =/= clicking a Wikipedia link. My standards are way too high in that realm.)
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This reminds me that I still need to pick some random LJers' names as we discussed. *nerves*
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Wouldn't it be easier to check out maybe some monsters that are in trees (and there are plenty) or "real" tree-demons than to make them up?
(Also, with that OC, from what I can remember, you did a serious amount of research - comparatively speaking - before turning it into your own devices. I mean, I'm counting clicking a Wikipedia link as "research" in this scenario.)
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I think it may have to do with age of writer and experience in writing and dealing with what actually IS easier--tweaking reality or making stuff up wholesale--and the ultimate ... statement or whatever, you are making with either method.... Like it's more "creative" to throw in your own stuff, plot holes or not, but eventually (I find) people get over that idea?
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I suppose the biggest value judgment I'm making in this post is, "I don't like writing that has no research." It might be the academic dork in me, but I think it's my general taste, since I've been that way for ages. (When the other kids were reading Anne Rice, I went out and picked up folkloric books on European vampire research.) Unresearched writing - with some notable exceptions - is unappealing. (Research can be as simple as writing what you know or as complicated as years of in-depth research, endless weekends at the library, etc.)
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Wikipedia is an *amazing* starting point. I remember spending hours and hours at the library trying to dig up one or two facts on some obscure subject or another, knowing that one or two facts was all I'd get unless I wanted to spend several months on research... nowadays, I can wiki it and get the starting-point facts on one page, which gives me an idea of what to google to get to the more in depth info.
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Plus, imo, fics are more enjoyable for the reader if I can find a way to relate what I'm doing to *something* they know. If I'm writing something set in 1967 Brooklyn, I don't necessarily need to know what color bus line ran from Brooklyn to Manhattan at that particular time (I do know, but most people reading aren't going to care). I do have a responsibility not to have my characters pull up to a drive-thru McDonalds in Manhattan, though, whether in 1967 or 2009... unless I'm writing some alt universe Manhattan where there are drive through anythings.
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