Wednesday, May 3, 2017

IWSG: Research and the Indigo Connection

Today is Insecure Writer's Support Group Day, as is the first Wednesday of every month. If you'd like to join this really cool group, click on the link.

Thank you to Alex Cavanaugh and his co-hosts (this month we have Nancy Gideon, Tamara Narayan, Liesbet @ Roaming About, Michelle Wallace, and Feather Stone!) whose dedication keeps this monthly event going.


May 3 Question: What is the weirdest/coolest thing you ever had to research for your story?

When I first had the idea for a ghost-whispering teenage amateur sleuth, I researched psychic children and came up with the terms Indigo children and Crystal children. The idea is a new age concept in which it's thought that children born in recent years are a new breed of children, different in how they view the world. They are warriors sent to change the world, to make it a better place. Honest and truthful to a fault. Many have special abilities such as ESP. Controversy surrounds the concept, only partly because psychic abilities can't be proven and has always drawn skeptics. You can read about the rest of the controversy at the link above if you're interested.

But for my purposes and that of my sleuth (whom I named Indigo because I think it's a really cool and different kind of name), the ability to speak with ghosts and receive visionary information through touch makes an interesting cozy paranormal mystery.


What's the coolest thing you ever researched?

32 comments:

  1. Psychic kids sounds like something fun to research. Love your header. Great for your cozy mystery writing.

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    1. It's really fascinating, Natalie. And the header is new--I love it!

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  2. I've never heard of that. I learned something new today. Cool you gave her that name.

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    1. It is such an interesting topic. Because, what if...?

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  3. It definitely makes for an interesting story base. =) There is something to ESP and psychic abilities. There's a channel they tune into or something, because who hasn't had a moment when they just knew something that was coming down the pipeline? If only we could all be so in tune. Or not. I guess that could be problematic too, eh?

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    1. I do believe there's something to it, Crystal, because of those little incidences. So fascinating!

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    2. Agreed. I like to call it inspiration.

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  4. I've heard about these ideas before - I know someone who thinks he is an indigo but I think he's just full of himself LOL. It's interesting to learn how Indigo got her name! Very cool.

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    1. According to some descriptions I've seen, that's one of the attributes! LOL.

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  5. What a cool find! I love finding little tidbits.

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    1. It was insightful, Elizabeth. But mostly I found the name of my main character!

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  6. Ooo, that sounds so cool about the Indigo children. It's neat how you came up with Indigo's name through that research too.

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  7. I like the name Indigo too. It's a pretty name.

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    1. Yeah, that's what I thought. So I just left out the controversial stuff and stuck with the pretty name :)

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  8. The coolest thing I researched had to do with the reported stretches of time people were reported as dead but came back to life. There were some intriguing findings.

    I love Indigo and crew and look forward to more from them :-)

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    1. Right? So if they were dead, where were they when they were "gone"...?

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  9. Is that where you got her name? I love that name.

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  10. I love research, and so everything is pretty awesome.

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    1. Life is infinitely more interesting with internet access, Donna.

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  11. I love Indigo's name and I think it's cool that you found it doing research!
    Happy May, Gwen!

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    1. There are infinite possibilities when researching on the internet.

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  12. That is cool, also something I am planning to look up but now I have some new terms to look for.
    ' Juneta @ Writer's Gambit

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    1. Indigo children, Crystal children and star children. Be ready for controversy though!

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  13. Ha! I too recently wrote a story about Indigo Children, but I took a very different approach to it (while still based on the idea of children born with special abilities). In my version the kids got a little too full of themselves for being better than everyone else...

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    1. One of the less desirable attributes of an Indigo child is pomposity. Some say this concept is a cover up for children with ADD which gives them a license to behave badly, or rather gives the parent an out for allowing bad behavior. I have no opinion on this and don't want to get into the controversy. I'm just an author doing research. LOL. I only took the attributes I liked and molded my character out of that, and rather than say she was an Indigo child, I named her Indigo, simply because I love the name.

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  14. That's cool. I never heard those terms or of that idea. I better take a closer look at my granddaughter.

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  15. This subject interests me very much. It must have been fun to research...now I'm going to read the link you gave.

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  16. Interesting to read where the name came from. I always wondered. :-)

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