Research, Take 1

If you can't tell by the title, we're going to be talking about research today.  For the purpose of this post, we're going to be talking about research that is not in person.  The reason is that I am at the moment in my mystery novel or the comfort level in my life where I want to go and interview someone about what they do.  I have to figure out plot and characters and a ton of other stuff first.  It's also why this is take 1 because I will get to the point of in-person interviews.  We'll talk about how that goes when I get there but I'm not putting a timeline on it.  This research post is more to talk about how it is sometimes a problem and how sometimes it gives you things you didn't think of before.

Case in point.  Today, I went to the library, which is awesome for research and you should always go there first, to possibly find a book or three on life as a Catholic priest.  I ended up in the religion section, which did work for some things, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted.  The priest character is going to be a major character in the mystery novel I'm working on, being the main character's brother, and I need to get a good background on him.  Since I couldn't find any sort of book on life as a priest (dear readers, if you have suggestions, please leave a comment below!), I went to Google.  This is the one and only time that Google won over the library.  If only because I could find websites immediately about what a priest does during the day.  So that was very nice and now I can figure out more about this major character.

Non person research can be like this.  You might want the one specific thing and will not be happy until you get it in black and white.  Or you might randomly go to a section of the library, find a book on a completely different subject, and decide to go in a different direction for your character or plot.  I know, for me, if I was open to changing my Catholic priest character into a Buddhist monk, there were a ton of books in the section I was in.  Or if I wanted to change it from priest to nun.  It's also what makes research fun.  Or it could make it frustrating.  Today is a day where I was frustrated.  On a different day, I would have been going "or I could do this!" and be happy.

So, the best thing to do, when doing research is to try and have an open mind.  You'll probably be less frustrated and maybe find what you want easier.  If all else fails, remember that Google never judges and sometimes knows more of what you want than you do.  Technology is scary that way sometimes.

Until next time, dear readers, love and support your local library.  And research on!