Researching your Daydreams

[Laila]

According to Cynthia's new study, only 8% of participants reported researching aspects of their daydreams. I was honestly quite surprised...maybe because I always research mine. Science articles, community forums, dictionaries, documentaries, Wikipedia...you name it. I want my DDs to be somewhat accurate if I'm going to use mental and physical illnesses, real places and events, and professional occupations for my characters. I'm always wondering, "Can this really happen?" and look it up.

Researching my DDs to properly set up each scenario/story is actually the most exciting part! Once I get started, it's harder to pull me away from researching than daydreaming. I can spend a good intense 4 hours doing that. I often interrupt my DDs in the middle of the night just to research before I can continue. It's like I can't move on without knowing if my DD is possible, and I'm craving to know everything about it.

My research ranges from understanding complex health/behavior and situations I have not experienced in the real world to simple definitions. We all know what "love" means, but I find great pleasure in reading the definition over and over. Every time I do, the relationships of my characters feel more genuine. And when I read the definition for "coma," the unconscious state of my unlucky victimized character feels more genuine. I consider this the weirdest part and wouldn't be surprised if no one else does this... Who really sits around for an hour reading elementary definitions that they already know? Well, I do... xD

 

To sum it all up, research of any kind strongly reinforces my daydreams. If someone ever walks up to me and asks, "Hey, why are you researching Oreophobia?" my unspoken answer would be: "To drive my imaginary character crazy!" Lol... (Oreophobia: An intense fear of Oreo cookies).

 

Does anyone else research to this extent or at all? If you don't, is that just because your DDs are more fantasy-oriented and you simply don't care about accuracy? Or maybe you just don't like research period. *shrugs* xD

[Robert M. Laramee]

I love to research anything I am interested in. It is so rewarding to make an accurate prediction. It's usually what brings me back. Observation and course corrections. Actions and attitudes.

[roxanne]

I also research names - names are VERY important to me.  I change mine periodically and it's such a tremendous high to get just the right one.  I will look up different ethnic names, depending on my current ethnicity.  Or sometimes a name will appeal to me & I will change my "profile" to accommodate.  I will also look up  things like clothes (once I was pregnant & got maternity catalogues), houses, gardens, cruises, etc.  I'm getting fired up just thinking about it all.

I wonder when they asked about research if people thought it meant something more formal.  

[littleschrodinger'scat]

That is very suprising, I really figured everyone researched their daydreams. I did not used to research my daydreams but I had never created a world before this ( I just made a new episode/chapter of a television show/book ). One of my characters has a mental difference and I have read over 20 pages of google on this particular difference ( not to mention the countless youtube documentaries ). I have spent hours at a time researching names for my characters that are fitting ( by fitting I mean with a proper meaning ) and appealing ( much more difficult than it seems ).

[roxanne]

I was also surprised to hear only 8% of people research - it's starred in my notes.  I assumed everyone who has a celebrity crush/obsession researches on internet constantly.  I go through "phases" - once I was involved in Irish fantasy and read up on Irish history continuously.  (Still interested, although fantasy long gone.)  Another time it was about Native Americans, another on-going fascination.  Each new celebrity brings about tons of research, including their horoscope, which can give me hours & days& weeks of analysis & comparison.  I agree that the research is often one of the most exciting parts.  However, it has it's down side.  For instance, finding things out about crush - like new girl friends - can send me into a tail spin, and I have recently sworn off this sort of research.  But I also miss it.  (No harm in some astrological chart comparisons though.)

[debbie downer]

i do, but only if it's something that's bugging me a lot. xD but i don't use any physical illnesses or anything like that... for example, i have a character who's obsessed with a band that's an actual band in real life. i knew that i wanted him to have a band obsession, but i didn't know which band to have him obsess over, so i just picked the name of some random band that i had heard of but never really listened to. i keep googling the band to find out the member's names, some of their album titles, etc just so his obsession with them can be... accurate. xD just because it bugs me that i don't really know anything about the actual band.

 

i don't research that much at all, but one thing that i do a lot is i like to find pictures of people that look like my characters and edit them to look exactly like my characters. xD i feel like kind of a creep when i do that because the real person in the picture would probably think it's really weird, but oh well. it's not like they'll ever find out. :P

[Placidia]

I absolutely research to that extent.  And yeah, I'm surprised to see that statistic too, because I think the research is actually one of the biggest aspects of MD for me. I think I tend to research because adding that info makes the daydream feel more realistic to me, and therefore more real.  I feel like it's not completely random, but like it's something that could happen and has a basis in reality.

 

Actually, unfortunately it's one of the things that makes my DDing seem unhealthy and addictive: I'll spend hours researching things that are only tangentially related, and while it is fun to learn all of that new info, I think I tend to get really obsessive when I research.  (Plus I become very secretive about my research: I want to read all about xyz that's involved with a daydream, but I become preoccupied with finding a way to hide from others that I'm researching it.)