Episode 90: How To Use Research To Make Your Fiction Even More Irresistible

Yomiko Readman from the anime Read or Die is always excited to get her hands on more research materials.

Even when you're making up your own story, you still need to do tons of research. But the good news is, research is super fun. We talk about how to bring a dose of reality to your imaginary people and places. And we also discuss Charlie Jane's brand new book about how to write yourself out of the bad times!

Notes, Citations, & etc.!

Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories by Charlie Jane Anders

Don't say that Neanderthals were primitive or brutish — they were people.

Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet is an awesome new show, apart from one or two details.

Robert B. Parker put his real-life knowledge of Boston into his Spenser novels

Naomi Wolf discovered too late that her book had a major inaccuracy

Physicist Sean Carroll consulted on the time travel in Avengers: Endgame.

For Charlie Jane's story "The Time Travel Club," she worked closely with Dr. Dave Goldberg, who used to write the "Ask a Physicist" column for io9.

For Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, Annalee traveled all over the world visiting archeological sites.

For Future of Another Timeline, Annalee learned a lot about the forgotten history of female-led punk bands.

Sensitivity readers are an important part of research. You need to pay them for their work.