I'm so thankful to be writing in an era that has so much information at my fingertips. We all know the power of a good internet search for authors. I've looked up things like average temperatures in certain locations, checked to make sure my fictional town is indeed fictional, and found out symptoms for diseases. In my current work in progress, I've had to look up information about a specific surgery and the recovery time. It is incredibly helpful! I can't imagine trying to write before the internet and having to leave home to do research - exhausting!
There are a couple of other tools besides generic internet searches that I use frequently that people might not consider. The first is behindthename.com/random. Sometimes naming characters is easy, but sometimes it's more difficult. This website allows me to set some parameters and then randomly generates names from which to choose. If I want some specific ethnic names, I can select that and get a list (including surnames) that I can use for my characters. I used this in Maui Christmas because I wanted traditional Hawaiian names that were also not super common. For minor characters, I might use it if nothing is coming to mind for the name. Plus, it's a lot of fun - at least for a nerd like me who loves names.
Another tool that I've only recently begun to use is houseplans.net. I can't always picture a floor plan in my mind. It's very vague to me which makes it difficult to write. I discovered this tool when working on A Groom for Christmas so that I could find a little mountain cabin for Bryce's grandma. Since then, I use it often. I can select regional areas and styles of homes, and then select the one that I think fits best. It's fantastic! (If you want to see the floor plan I'm using in my upcoming Holliday Hotel book, you can click here)
Not only are these sites useful, they're also fun to play around in. I can waste a lot of time looking up names or houses. Do you know of any other tools that writers use? I'd love to hear about them if you do!
Technology is a blessing for research. It makes writing much easier, and kind of fun, too.
Photo by Nao Triponez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/shallow-focus-photography-of-macbook-792199/
