Knowledge is Power!

(Schoolhouse Rock reference intended)

AP tests.

Death.

I’m taking less than half as one of my other friends though. She’s taking five, two of which are on the same day. Now that is death. But I’m pretty close. Not to mention the fact that my other teachers/classes don’t seem to acknowledge their existence and are giving us the same amount of homework and tests as we’ve always had.

Joy.

But of course this not a blog where I complain about my school life, though it does cut into my writing time which I guess makes it relevant.

I cannot stress how much I recommend have writing buddies. They say make friends with people who share your same interests, but especially when those interests include serious writing. Those are the friends who will know your pain, give you sympathy, help and sometimes ideas. They understand what you want to do, why you want to do it, and a lot of time two people can figure out a lot more info about publishing and such than one can. And now even agents are looking for referrals rather than unsolicited material, so if your friend manages to get their foot in the door they can refer YOU. That’s how Cassandra Clare got her first publication. Her friend Holly Black had gotten a publishing deal and referred Clare to her agent. Now she has over 8 books with millions of copies sold each, a movie, and at least 4 more on the way. If you still need to be convinced, check out the full article on it, Writing Buddies.)

If you read a bit around on this blog, you’ll know that my Writing Buddy also happens to be my best friend. In fact that’s another reason why I haven’t been as faithful updating this blog the past week or so, I’ve been working on her birthday present with every spare minute I haven’t been studying. It’s finally in the mail (a week late- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGARET! You’ve got 3 years left to get your two books. You can do it!). But she’s not my only writing friend, and one of the things that I’ve noticed, being able to compare the two, is that writers know a lot of weird stuff.

I know that might sound weird, but it’s true. We know a lot of weird stuff.

I have no interest whatsoever in going into the medical field, much less becoming an OBGYN doctor, yet I know an astonishing amount about preterm births. I am also very much not Jewish, nor do I have any family or close friends who are Jewish. Yet I know quite a bit about Jewish funerals. And I know far more about malaria and how it affects a person than anyone other than someone working on a malarial vaccine should know. Why? Because I researched all of these for a story.

There is no reason that my other friend would know so much about modern day pirates or Somalia. Most people I know wouldn’t know where to point on a map to find Somalia. Except that she has a character who is a Somalian pirate.

It doesn’t always have to be stuff found researched for a story though, it can also be stuff that’s just been picked up reading or in school. I will never forget where the latissimus dorsi muscle is in your back because my teacher described it as “the wing shaped muscle” but I misheard her as “the muscle where the wing attaches.” Now I knew that I had misheard, but I’ve certainly never forgotten. I believe that historical fiction is probably the best way to learn history.

Sometimes we run into stuff we don’t know though, or something that we’re not sure about because we’ve seen it on TV, but can you really trust Hollywood at all? (usually the answer to that is no. If you think you know something because you saw it in a movie, please research it before you try to put it to paper. When it comes to information always assume that Hollywood is a liar.)

The internet is probably everyone’s best friend in this case. There is no end to the information you can find out with a Google search (I would have said a quick Google search, but some information is very far from a quick Google search. I’ve spent hours trying to get a simple question answered while people just keep on telling me stuff I already know. New mommy websites, I love you.) But just like Hollywood, you have to be very careful about the answers you find. Make sure that they’re correct.

What is your source? Are you looking on yahoo!answers, or are you looking on The World Health Organization’s official website/reports?

• Dot orgs are usually much safer than dot coms, I think we all know that having grown up in the Information Age.

• If you’re looking for historical information like stuff people would be wearing or dressed in, I would suggest finding a website for roleplayers- sorry. Reenactors. Especially on the American Civil War, you will be able to find out just about anything you want to know about that war from hard core reenactors.

• Medical information should usually come from a website sponsored by a hospital.

• Don’t trust Wikipedia, unless it’s a highly specialized topic. Yes people can edit what it says on Wiki, but who’s going to both modifying highly specialize/scientific information?

• I’ve found that you can usually find a lot of statistical information from either the UN an/or its various break off branches, or if you’re looking for information about the US, PewResearch.org is a great place to go.

• Then there’s also the New Mommy type websites. Websites that are designed to help people figure out what to do when they have no idea. This category would also include First Aid websites too.

• New articles, if you can find one related to your topic are… usually pretty good. It depends on what your topic is and who wrote the article. Usually they’re pretty good. Usually.

And you can always try to find someone who knows what they’re talking about. When I was doing my writing project on incompetent cervixes, there was no one better to ask for help than my OBGYN Aunt. Asking actual people is really nice because you get to ask them questions and they will answer that specifically. And let us not forget the still very valuable source of information called BOOKS. We’re all trying to write one, right?

If you’re looking at the right sources, you can find out all sort of relevant information to your topic… and lots of other cool/weird information that you can impress/freak out your friend with later.

Did you know that parasitic flatworms have the most complex reproductive systems of an animal?