The Surprising Fun of Research Rabbit Trails

Don’t you love research rabbit trails?

You start off searching for something and before you know it you’re wandering off into a completely different subject!

But sometimes, okay almost always, I stumble on other interesting facts or stories. They catch me by surprise and I want to share them too, even though there’s no room in my story.

What’s a writer to do?

Share them with friends!

The novella I was writing at the time took me to several surprising places!

The Yuletide Bride took place circa 1873 Nebraska. Remembering events from Laura Ingalls Wilder‘s On the Banks of Plum Creek, I wanted to find out if the grasshoppers plagued Nebraska.

They did.

In 1874.

I found photos and drawings:

Drawn during the time of the invasion, Worrall’s work expresses well the revulsion farmers felt when grasshoppers first ate all their crops (including the wool off the sheep!).

The grasshoppers added to the problem when they dug their eggs into the soil leaving the land vulnerable for another cycle of devastation.

The actual creature was the Rocky Mountain Locust, and they returned in the 1930s, as well.

Locust invasions still happen. Youtube featured a video of one in the Congo. Watch if you dare, here.

What did that have to do with The Yuletide Bride?

Absolutely nothing. It’s just something I read and thought interesting.

Just another research rabbit trail

Eventually, I discovered what I really wanted to know–land policies in 1873 Nebraska–and returned to writing my novella.

But first, I stopped off at Pinterest to look at photos of the Nebraska landscape, particularly along rivers and streams–which was pertinent to my story.

I got distracted there by photos of the Russian Romanov family.

I’ve read about the Romanovs since I wrote an award-winning story based on their horror in high school.

I’d not seen a lot of those photos before and wasted far too much time examining them. (Fans can admire them here.)

One Pinterest board turned up a delightful smiling photo of Queen Victoria. Unfortunately, copyright won’t let me show it to you. Look at this Pinterest link.

Here’s another photo, however, that Wikipedia allows:

What I was struck by on the Pinterest photo, was how much Queen Victoria’s great-granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, looked like her.

I’m not sure you can see it in this next photo of the current queen:

Anyway, I had fun examining photos.

What did this have to do with my current project?

Almost nothing. The British royal family had no role in my story at all–except in regards to the bagpipes.

Maybe.

Tweetables

Where do research rabbit trails usually take you? Click to Tweet

Don’t you love research rabbit trails? Click to Tweet

Does the thought of a grasshopper invasion give you the heebie jeebies? Click to Tweet