Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Research and the doom flowers

One of the things I love about writing is research and how ridiculous it can be. I'm a spur-of-the-moment researcher. One minute I'll be writing an interrogation scene and the next minute I'm googling burrowing frogs because my character needs a good insult! Yes, burrowing frogs = good insult.

Anyway, for my current WIP I've been looking up flowers. Flower symbolism has always kind of fascinated me and thus, it's a big deal in the world of my WIP. Subsequently I have a folder in my Scrivener document that looks like this:
Flowers, flowers everywhere! Flowers, flowers in your hair!
Darling, isn't it?  Unfortunately flower research has a dark side. Yes, you heard me right. A dark side. How is this possible, you ask. Flowers are pretty and fresh and lovely and grow in meadows! Well, let me tell you a story.

Last December a dear friend of mine got married. Now, there are thousands of different flowers and my story mentions seventeen of them, so the chance of me knowing anything about wedding flower was slim. Especially since I can't recall most of the meanings on command.

Then the wedding flowers turned out to be orange lilies, I couldn't help but giggle to myself. They're gorgeous, but didn't anyone know? Orange lilies mean hatred!

The wedding went off without a hitch. The bride was gorgeous and the groom couldn't stop grinning like a lunatic. The munchies were delicious and the cake was a thing of dreams. The happy couple is still doing well, despite parading around with orange lilies during their wedding. I have no doubts that they'll keep doing fine.

So, has your research ever taken a turn for the ridiculous? What strange things have you learned from your research and have those things ever come to haunt you? And what about orange lilies--gorgeous or portent of doom?

2 comments:

Kate Robertson said...

Interesting about the lilies. My research led me to a language in China called Nushu, that only women knew how to read and write. I thought it was pretty fascinating so I am using it in one of my WIP. Research can be fascinating for sure....

Brenna said...

I'm a terrible person and don't do much research. I wish I did. I want to do more. But I need to write more first. I want to put the writing first, research second.

btw- excited I know what scene you're talking about with the frog. Sad that I already know the story of the lilies. And, I nominated you for the award anyway. You can put it in your pretty sidebar, write a post with seven things for tomorrow - a special edition - and don't do steps three or four. Okay?

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