I read somewhere that Sean Mcmullen wore a full-on chainmail suit and trekked through the desert, thirty miles in the hot sun, just to understand how his character would feel.


Anymore guys like this?

The ones I can think of overdo their academic research. I bought a book on Kruschev several years ago expecting it to be a life and times book. Instead it was all bio: 800 pages not including the notes. I made it a project to read it--every word--and about all I remember is he was short. Too many bloated bios and other nonfiction books are published. I think after spending years doing research, some authors can't bring themselves to exclude anything. Maybe more people would read the book if it was a reasonable length proportionate to the significance of the topic. And if they find they've written 800 pages, they can't bear to cut out a substantial amount of trivia and make the book more readable..

I learned Cherokee to bring the Andaran people alive in The Fovean Chronicles. This was NOT an easy task for a white guy with blue eyes.

The best thing you ever write will never be better than the worst research you ever do. When I wrote about a character who was a student of historical battles, it was because I was already a student of historical battles.

Would I walk 30 miles across the desert in chainmail? It depends on how essential it was to the story. I can tell you I've work armor and fought all day with the SCA. I've ridden my horse for hours.

The question isn't "was the research excessive." It was, "Did it make the book better?"

There is no such thing as going overboard researching a subject for a book. I am so sick of reading completely erroneous 'facts' and statements in novels today. Authors can't be bothered to research even casual facts: .38 revolvers don't have a safety, they can't jam. revolvers are not automatics, automatics are not the same as semi-automatic. There are no colonels or majors in the U.S. Navy. Ac and Dc voltage are completely different. A power outage will not affect cars because they run on DC batteries and are self contained power systems. Yet I've recently read all those errors in different novels. It seems when it comes to technical details authors just don't care to learn anything. And these mistakes (.38 revolver having a safety switch) are in big time novels like 'Cyberstorm'.
I don't think you can have too many factual details. I applaud any author who goes 'overboard'.
Of course then even so-called 'journalists' can't be bothered to check facts either.

Since my earlier post I found something of interest in a short story anthology edited by a prolific author and editor. An art expert refers repeatedly to the "prominence" of an art work. The error had a certain childlike naïveté to it. But how would the author or editor know that they were ignorant, and meant "provenance"?

I don't think there's any limit on how much you can research.
The more you know the more believable your story will be.
I have to say though, some of the things I find when researching for my books are really creepy.
I asked how to et blood stains off a wooden floor and there's an actual forum with heaps of people giving advice about how they managed to get large amounts off. I also asked how lon it would take to do a grave and there was another forum saying all their experiences. One said he was in a hurry so it only took him 2 hours but it was a shallow grave. Another advised to dig it before hand so you're not stuck with the body for too long! Just one more, I asked how to mask the smell if a dead body and there were tones of answers saying all sorts like not to keep them under a house unless they're really deep otherwise flies will get to them and the smell will go through the whole house! Quiet disturbing!

Here's a good research site: http://forensics4fiction.com/

LOL... SarahKRose, you mean you don't keep bodies under your house.. Weird..lmao.. I write paranormal romance, but sometimes when i am researching something, I looked into graves as well, and you would be surprised how many people gave me this just all out history of them. Like the reason we buried people 6 foot down, was because before embalming that was how deep they had to be for a blood hound not top smell the rot.

I learnt that the hard way when i was a kid and my dog dug my pet rat back up >.< I'm still trying to fin a way so they can be hidden in a bunker under floorboards because I really want it in my story. Maybe the forensic site will help.

Maybe, So you do not want to have the bodies buried to deep?