A lot of people tend to have one or two questionable searches that you think might rocket you to the top of some random “most wanted” list somewhere in the world. In my experience, nobody takes the cake quite like writers and the weird things our brains need to know in order to add a specific depth of realism to our stories! Here’s a smattering of the weird things I’ve googled in the past couple months to help my stories make sense:
- “oldest known tree genus”
We’re starting off kind of easy, but this search definitely makes the top of the list for me as things I never thought I’d need to know in order to write. I was composing a short story with the personified characters of Life and Death, and their story began with the first living thing. In my brain, it had to be a tree! This of course spun me into a rabbit hole, ending with that theory that large plateaus are in fact massive tree stumps? Anyways, I ended up not being specific because the story was meant to be focused on the cycle of life and death and the inherent beauty in that cycle, despite the pain of it, so I googled this for absolutely no reason!
2. “what does molasses smell like”
In a kitchen scene, the smells are super important to me. Growing up with a grandma who knew how to bake (and bake very well) and having a husband who can cook up an amazing dish at the last minute with things I didn’t even know we had in the kitchen, smell is one of my favorite senses. Heck, my husband makes sure to keep his cologne well stocked because he’s been wearing it for so long that to me, it smells like him and home. So, for A Fancy Story, I pushed a little of my personal relationship with scents onto my main character, Henry. I always try to utilize as many senses as I can when writing, when it makes sense for a scene, because I want my readers to feel like they’re experiencing the scene right alongside my characters!
3. “how do mafias make money”
Okay, this one may have set off some alarms somewhere. Maybe. Mafia Misses is a story in a genre I never thought I’d write, but I got sucker-punched with an entangled web of ideas and needed to get it on paper. That being said, other than mainstream media depictions of the mob or mafia, I didn’t know how many (illegal, do not try at home) ways a theoretical mafia could make money or run “business”. Since my fictional mafia is run by a woman, I also had to figure out her moral code and lines she wouldn’t cross when it came to the realm of illicit activities.
4. “side effects of cannibalism”
Are you even a writer if there isn’t something in your search history relating to murder or cannibalism? (The answer is yes, if you write you’re a writer, it’s no biggie.) But, seriously? I googled this because I was debating including cannibalism in a novel. The idea might have a pin in it for now, but it’s always an interesting concept to explore in a fictional world, be it for survival or ritualistic or cultural reasons.
5. “original use of windmills”
I was debating even including this in my list of weird google searches, because grouped with the others it doesn’t seem all that weird. However, I never thought I’d need to google this, so here it stays.
Writing dystopian has made me so thankful for the world of technology we live in. I’ve had to search many things along the same line as this one, just to figure out if food production would be realistic in the post-war situation for A Fancy Story. My search history was cluttered with where specific foods grow in addition to this search, and even then I might have to google some alternative recipes for random things in the future!
I may need to put together a cookbook for the back of the book. Dang.
I’m certain this will be the first post in a series. The world is wide, full of untapped knowledge and potential, and the things writers search for to give their stories depth can range from heart-wrenching to scary to downright ‘why the heck did you need to know that’. Writing is a wild roller coaster sometimes, in pursuit of that knowledge for our stories and character’s sakes. Drop a comment with the most off-the-wall thing you’ve had to google recently!
If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.
– Stephen King
Ruth Dale Writes 
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