do you ever research things to make your daydream realistic?

[ashlee]

for example, ill google what their wages would be for their jobs just to see how much money they make. and to see if they could actually live on their own with that wage.

or if i give them a job, but i dont really know what that an average person would do at that job, i google it to see what they'd do everyday

or   if theyre in college or something, ill google which classes they'd have to take for their career choice.

and my daydream takes place in SoCal, so sometimes ill google map how long it takes to get from one place to another

or if its one of my characters birthdays and it takes place in the future, I check the calender on my phone to see which day of the week it lands on (because if its on a weekday they could be working and if they had kids at the time theyd be at school, so id need to know which day their birthday landed on to make the daydream realistic)

i dont know...i just check weird things like that so my daydream is realistic
is that a little extreme? or does anyone else do that? i hope so

[Wish Upon A Wish]

I do some little things like that occasionally, if I'm near a computer (or cell phone for checking dates) and am able to/can be bothered.

Actually, lately in Study I've been designing a house I'd like to live in when/if I have a family, and had to check the size of a double garage to try to get everything else in proportion, so I don't have a bedroom the size of a triple garage, or whatever.

[Sarah]

I do this!!! Something is going to happen in my DD so the other day I was just thinking to do some research on the topic, to get more familiar with it. I like my DD to be realistic so yeah I check everything to make sure I do it right. Plus sonetimes I'll watch movies about a specific thing so I have more info.

[Snapplez]

Yeah, I do the same. I'm sure we all do. Seems to be pretty "normal" for MDDers. lol :D

[Ocean Breeze]

All the time.  Seriously -- every day.  When I find myself daydreaming about living in London, I start googling to see what my house looks like, what part of London I live in, etc.  There are even webcams placed all over England, so I can access some of them to see what is going on over there right now.  Also -- every New Year's Eve, I am mentally in London, so I go online and watch the fireworks there by Big Ben instead of watching the fireworks in my own hometown or in NYC on television.

[Laila]

Yep! In particular, I like to research psychological disorders and medical conditions since I inflict my characters with that stuff all the time. It could be in the middle of the night and I get up to check facts. Now this part is kinda weird, but, I also research common/or basic things to reinforce my daydreams. For instance, I could read a wiki article on "love" all day long. I guess you could say it gets me in the mood. xD

[Pseudo Life]

I do this all the time. I use the internet to collect images of clothes, people, places, houses, rooms, etc.  I have a passworded photo manager on my ipad where I organize everything. There is Anna and her family - and Peter and his family.  The house in Boston, the House in London, and the floorplan of the 5 bedroom penthouse we are building.  .  I have my favorite designers and shop at Neiman Marcus, Saks and Bloomingdales.  clothes are in seasonal folders, as well as things like cocktail, formal, casual.  

I've been doing this for more than 18 months.  I've become more capable of securing all of the images but I'm sure my husband may have seen some - but didn't ask, which doesn't surprise me.

I find myself a bit frustrated when I try to be too realistic - who could ever be a jazz vocalist, neuroscientist, a dear friend of a famous gay british interior designer,  from Charleston, SC, PhD Harvard, first marriage to a closet gay but had two wonderful boys - all three killed in a car crash. After deep mourning and great support from my famous gay british designer friend (who also grew up next door to me in Charleston), I pulled myself up although I have moments of grief.  I met my husband, british, research in child hood mental illnesses, on a flight from Singapore to san francisco.   [more to that as well.  My latest detail despair was trying to figure out how a couple flies first class on long flights where they can snuggle but not much else.  all my research shows people in first class sleep in podlike units.  

I enjoy all this stuff.  I also do serious volunteer work for about 40 hours a week, (retired).  Day dreaming makes me relax, helps me with the anxiety, and counteracts the unhappiness I feel in a 43 year marriage. there are worse things to do.

[Pseudo Life]

what is about London.  I am having a two story penthouse decorated in one of the new towers by the river. I will have to try the cams.   I have a couple of real estate companies I use to check what available for a mere 10 million lpounds

Ocean Breeze said:

All the time.  Seriously -- every day.  When I find myself daydreaming about living in London, I start googling to see what my house looks like, what part of London I live in, etc.  There are even webcams placed all over England, so I can access some of them to see what is going on over there right now.  Also -- every New Year's Eve, I am mentally in London, so I go online and watch the fireworks there by Big Ben instead of watching the fireworks in my own hometown or in NYC on television.

[OhMyMagenta]

Yes I absolutely do this. For me, it helps the DD flow more smoothly and seem more believable. If I don't know about something specific, I can't let go and just DD. I have to look up the info I need to better add to the plausibility of the storyline.

[Kacey]

I've done this. I've researched the name of a man I DD about. This is crazy but I even put an ad on Craigslist in the area where I DD he lives. I knew I wouldn't find "him" but I put his description and said I thought it would be fun to see if anyone out there kind of fits the description. I got alot of responses but none of them were my DD guy. Imagine that????????? LOL!

[deathisyourgift2001]

I do this all the time.

Particularly if my DD is in another time period, which usually involves time travel to get there, and I need to know social points of view, and how people would dress back then.  

Yesterday I even ended up looking up how people would react to kissing in public in the mid west in the 1860's.  (Little bit into Hell On Wheels at the moment)

[Joey B]

I have definitely done that!  Especially with just 'details' -- like the type of guitar, car, location of a house near a beach, little minute details like that!

[Crissy]

I do this all the time! Celebrities are a huge part of my DDs so I research the particular celebrity extensively before they can be added as a character. I need their personalities & mannerisms to be as accurate as possible.