Name Your Research

Broadcasting "Number 10" in the field.

How much research are you doing for your current WIP? What form does it take? A quick Wikipedia search, or are you painstakingly requesting books through inter-library loan? What's the relationship between research and inspiration? Or does your "research" mostly come from your own brain?

I love internet research because it gets so random. I'll Google "Vietnamese folk tales" and end up on a site where a vet is talking about how he saw his Marine commander get jumped and mauled by a tiger (true story!). Or I'll stumble across something really haunting, like this video describing the "Wandering Soul" psychological warfare Americans used in Vietnam (also called "Number 10) -- ghostly howls and dialogue from beyond the grave