>>34732188A little of both! For example, when writing about Michael's boat, I found an IRL model (pic related!) I could use as a reference for the interior layout and appearance, but leaned on my experience growing up around boats to write about its operation. For the Natsuzuki, I found an actual IJN warship that survived the war (so I could sink it myself without weird continuity errors if I ever decide to say "It was just World War Two But More" and reference other wartime events) that satisfied a short list of requirements from back when I was planning a standalone story with Chryse about its ill-fated final mission. A lot of the rest I filled in with general military history knowledge, though I had to search the web for some minor points of info while I was writing. Example; where in the chain of command in a destroyer's gunnery section is a lieutenant I could assign Elty to? Just below the very top, it turns out!
Typically I'll do some hard research before starting a story on a wide variety of things. If I'm being honest, only part of this is for the story itself. I just like learning things, when I get down to it! I drove a friend of mine insane with three straight days of questions about Japanese kanji and naming conventions when trying to name Sheridan Miyashita, who is a character you'll see in HAGS Ch.1 (and got a glimpse of when I posted a draft of her first scene last month, under the provisional story name IASS). In fact, after BSTF, I was quite unhappy with my dartboard-esque naming scheme, and decided I'd put actual effort in selecting the names of characters from then on out. I looked into some Japanese geography to figure out how to structure a long day trip that will connect HAGS Pt.1 and Pt.2. Other times it's just simple brainwork, like figuring out the gate at the bottom of the dungeon worked, or the floorplans for Michael and Sierra's houses.
Though I know I'm not perfect, internal consistency is very important, and worth the effort!
