Category: Research

H is for How to Curate Social Media

4/9/2016

My theme for the April A to Z blogging challenge is Productivity for Creative People.

If you blog about writerly things, tweet industry news, or provide content on a Facebook author page, social media can be a necessary evil. The key, in these instances, is to “curate”--pull out the interesting tidbits you can use or share from the constant stream of information. Wouldn’t be wonderful if interesting items came to you, instead of having to scour the Internet looking for them? Here are three ways to make it happen:

Three Curation Tools

Use some type of automated alert system. Google Alerts and Talkwalker are both free. If you are interested in emerging infectious diseases, for example (like I was while researching Pandemic), you set an alert for that topic and receive a daily summary of mentions in the news. You can also set alerts for publishing houses you want to submit to or conferences you'd like to attend. This is an easy way to stay up to date.

Manage your twitter stream. Once you follow a number of people, it can be hard to find the useful tidbits among the noise. One way is to create lists, like “fellow creatives,” “family,” “publishing professionals,” “disease specialists.” [Note: you can set lists to “private” so that they are for your use only and people are not notified they were added to a list.] You do not need to follow someone to add them to a list. Once the list is set up, you can click on it to view those tweets in a stream, or use an application like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to see each list in a separate column.

Try an application like Alltop. This allows you to select blogs and newsfeeds from their site and add them to your own Alltop page. For example, if you are interested in knitting, writing, and uncluttering, you can select blogs on those topics and have the results aggregated on a single page. You can view productivity expert David Allen's Alltop page if you'd like to see an example.

Do you actively monitor social media, blogs, and other online sources for interesting stories? Share your own tools or methods below.

Five Types of Writing Research

3/18/2016

By Yvonne Ventresca

Writers tend to be curious people. It leads us to think about “what if” scenarios and imagine various possibilities. When the Swine Flu occurred in 2009, it wasn’t particularly lethal, but it did make me wonder. What if a virus was extremely contagious and caused a high death rate? And what if a teen girl became separated from her parents and had to survive on her own? Even though the resulting young adult novel is a work of fiction, writing Pandemic required many hours of research. As author Zora Neale Hurston said, “Research is formalized curiosity.”

Five types of research for fiction (and some thoughts on finding useful information)

Character development: The psychology of the main characters is a key element in creating authentic fiction. Since my protagonist, Lil, was healing from a traumatic experience, I wanted to make sure that her behaviors fit the recovery process. Some information was available online, but I also found it valuable to speak with a social worker. She was able to help me further understand how someone in Lil’s situation might act.

Plot ideas: Depending on your storyline, experts can be helpful in generating new sources of conflict within your novel. For Pandemic, talking to a local public health officer inspired further complications that could result from a widespread illness. I was also able to locate several government emergency planning documents online that helped me imagine what might happen in dire circumstances. Nonfiction books about historic and emerging diseases were also useful in creating my fictional disease. While these examples apply to Pandemic, they could easily be adapted for other plotlines as well.

Dialogue: Writing out every “um” and “like” that people really say would weigh down a scene. You can research how teens talk by doing some careful listening. You don’t necessarily want to include slang that will date the story, but you want your characters to sound real. If you don’t have your own handy teens to eavesdrop on, go someplace that teens congregate and listen in a non-stalkerish way. When you’re writing, be sure to cut out the boring parts of a conversation.

Setting: I have a separate blog post about setting here. Even if you are extremely familiar with a place, make sure to accurately describe details like plants, trees, and the weather during the time the story is set. Google Earth is another tool for researching a setting.

Interesting Tidbits: Sometimes you don’t know how you’ll use a piece of information that strikes a chord with you. Create a system for saving these tidbits and their sources. For example, one interesting thing I learned is that during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, colored ribbons were placed on doorways to indicate a death in the household. The color of the ribbon indicated the age range of the dead. White, for instance, was used for children. These details inspired me to think about how we would use technology to track deaths today, which led to one of the characters creating a blog to share information with other characters in the story.

Research can add the details that make your novel stand out. If you have any tips or techniques, be sure to share them in the comments below.

Friday Five: Pandemic Worries and the 1918 Spanish Flu

8/8/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

All of the recent Ebola news is quite frightening. That's why I was surprised to hear an interview on CNBC yesterday with Irwin Redlener, author of the nonfiction book, Americans at Risk. Even with the Ebola outbreak, what does he worry about most? A "natural occurring pandemic of avian-flu type." He feels that the United States is not prepared for that type of disaster. "To put it simply," he said, "no, we're not ready." This is primarily because of cuts to federal funding that would be used for preparedness training and the stockpiling of antibiotics and vaccines.

You can listen to the full interview here.

During the interview, the Spanish flu of 1918 is mentioned. Even though Pandemic is set in current times, I spent a lot of time researching the Spanish flu for my novel. Today, Darlene Beck-Jacobson is sharing my guest post on her blog about five interesting historical facts that I learned. That serves as my Friday Five for this week -- I hope you check it out.

You can leave me a comment about what diseases and natural disasters keep you up at night.

Friday Five: Research Websites Provide Answers for Writers

11/15/2013

by Yvonne Ventresca

From your own name in the news to killer whale noises, this week's roundup of websites has you covered.

To keep up with a certain topic in the news or monitor when you (or your book) is mentioned online, try Talkwalker. This program allows you to set up multiple free alerts. The results are then emailed to you automatically. (Google Alerts works in the same way.)

Need article ideas? At Any Day in History, you select the day and the site displays notable births, deaths, and events that occurred on that date. Earth Calendar displays holiday celebrations around the world. You can view holidays for a specific year by country, or look at what celebrations are happening now.

For example, today is America Recycles Day. Who knew? Both these sites could be helpful in sparking an idea for a writing project.

For a huge collection of reference material, check Martindale’s The Reference Desk, which includes numerous math and science links, along with language and other topics, too. Martindale's led me to a great audio of killer whale vocalizations.

The US government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the Occupational Outlook Handbook online. If you need to decide on a character’s career, this site can provide data on job responsibilities, work environment, pay, and necessary education. The “more information” link provides related associations for each profession, which could serve as a contact for interviews if more details are needed.

Do you have a question you can’t find the answer to? If you’re
really stumped, try Ask an IPL2 Librarian for help. The volunteers (professional librarians and library science graduate students) try to respond within a week.

Let me know if you find these resources helpful or if there are others you would recommend.

H is for How to Curate Social Media

Three Curation Tools

Five Types of Writing Research

Five types of research for fiction (and some thoughts on finding useful information)

Friday Five: Pandemic Worries and the 1918 Spanish Flu

Friday Five: Research Websites Provide Answers for Writers

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H is for How to Curate Social Media

Three Curation Tools

Five Types of Writing Research

Five types of research for fiction (and some thoughts on finding useful information)

Friday Five: Pandemic Worries and the 1918 Spanish Flu

Friday Five: Research Websites Provide Answers for Writers

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