[ SECRET POST #2819 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2819 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 054 secrets from Secret Submission Post #403.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. But it depends on what you want to ask that person about. If it's procedural and about techniques, then you can find the answers to that online. If it's personal stuff, then Gaiman's advice will still be of limited use because the writer will be asking someone geographically closer to them, presumably, and the circumstances will be different. Plenty of professionals would be happy to answer questions from Neil Gaiman, writer/journalist. Fewer professionals are going to want to answer questions from tumblruser1989.

[a_potato]

Judging from this response and dancing_clown's, I don't think I worded myself very well. What I meant by "someone who's actually had to do that" was "someone who's actually had to approach a real life person when doing research."

(Not that what dancing_clown said doesn't apply, because I think it absolutely does)

That said, I think Gaiman's advice can be generalized in the sense that the questions a writer wants to ask are rarely as strange as they appear in the writer's head. You've got to push through the anxiety, make the phone call, and ask the question. And, who knows? You might get a very pleasant surprise.

Also, while it's true that fewer professionals want to engage with a writer who isn't established, there are plenty who do. Every writer has to start somewhere, and even first novels (or first non-fiction pieces) tend to contain information that came from real flesh-and-blood people.

[making_excuses]

Most people in my experience love to talk about their job, so I would imagine it would be fairly easy to find someone who can take their lunch hour or something to answer some questions, especially if you pay for said lunch.

Then again I might be wrong?

[a_potato]

I think it can depend a little on the context. In casual situations, I've had the exact same experience: asking questions about a person's job is a great way to generate conversation. But just calling a random person can be...a bit trickier. Some people are really into it and get really excited; others are like "what is this, I'm busy." I think it probably has to do with the fact that we view ourselves and our interactions with others differently depending on the social situation.

[(Anonymous)]

I was once trying to do some research for a paper in grad school. I tried contacting three people in the field I was trying to get information about. One never answered the phone. One hung up on me. The person I approached in person wound up chatting with me for over an hour and was very helpful. Perseverance helps (not nagging the same person, but moving on to someone else if the first one won't help), as does asking people you know if they know someone and to give you a "letter of introduction," and also not approaching people at times when they're likely to be too busy. Email is good, because they can respond at their leisure.

[a_potato]

That sounds very frustrating, but those are some really good guidelines.

[(Anonymous)]

It depends. I don't mind helping people, but I will get a little irritated if people ask questions they could've researched themselves on the internet or at the library, and frankly, a lot of people do that.

[arcadiaego]

That said, I think Gaiman's advice can be generalized in the sense that the questions a writer wants to ask are rarely as strange as they appear in the writer's head.

Also in that you don't always realise which obvious parts of knowledge (like putting everything in the right way round) you're missing until you actually say it out loud to someone. He probably wouldn't have googled that because he wouldn't have thought about it.

[a_potato]

That's a really good point. When you're having a conversation or participating in what someone does, there are a lot of questions that flow from the interaction, and bits of information that kind of crop up organically, and you can't get that from a computer screen. You might miss some very vital pieces of the experience of doing something if you just stick to google.