I, like most writers, google a lot of things. (I am also a big fan of using that as a common verb.) Even some things I already know, or have googled before, or will never remember in a million years. Only a fraction of it makes it into what I write, somehow. (The writer should know All. The writer should show Very Little in their actual writing, however.)
Last year, I googled a lot of things related to stimulants and sedatives. Unfortunately, due to the crowd-sourcing of google’s knowledge and the fact that I couldn’t remember as many terms from my uni drug classes, a lot of my search results gave me cocaine. Seriously, type in “stimulant”, and it’s always cocaine. ALWAYS.
Fun fact: I googled “I love cocaine meme” for writing this. That’s definitely something that dinged me. First fun one!
Anyway, as anyone remotely related to the writosphere knows, writers are constantly googling Bad Things. I could make an entire list, but let’s start with just the 2021 funsies! The list includes the terms I searched for and my rationale behind them.
– “i love cocaine meme” – To be fair, I first tried “cat covered in flour”, but I know of the meme and knew there was at least one good cat version. (The original version features a bear.) I wisely did not type the profanity part into google.
– “pride thesaurus” – Because I could not remember the word “hubris” and I was far too embarrassed (and impatient) to to ask a friend “hey what’s that word for too much bad pride”.
– “red scorpion torture scene” – I don’t think the NSA is going to believe me when I say I googled this for context for a magical girl series.
– “death bereavement mourning lakota” – Hey, it’s a very specific topic, and it’s a very specific answer I need. It’s just not a very happy topic, and it requires a bit more digging than your average mourning searches. (Because there are average mourning searches when you’re a writer.)
– “korean monster eats rich people” – For the curious, it’s called a yeongno.
– “human wrist tendons” – I’ve found that adding “human” to anything makes it sound inherently creepier.
– “psycho goreman” – To be fair, it IS a movie title! But it’s also made to be… that. Violent and scary at a glance. (It’s a campy dark comedy, too.)
– “hemlock plant” – I was actually looking for the flower, not necessarily the poison. This time. (This one also gets a bonus point for being a recurring google search.)
– “american air force standard issue pistol” – Admittedly a lot more specific than my other “gun” searches. That one’s on me.
– “alcohol islam” – Let’s be entirely honest, folks. America is Islamophobic AF and anything relating to searches on anything remotely related is definitely a ding.
– “compartment syndrome” – It doesn’t look that bad or nasty unless you actually know what it is.
– “pale gums dehydration” – Now it’s gonna look like I’m keeping someone in my basement. Whoops.
– “types of knives”, then “hunting” and “dagger” added onto that – And then proceeded to call someone on the phone and talk about the exact stabbability each type of knife had. Many people walked in on me.
– “great gatsbyleonardo dicaprio gif” – I bet if I didn’t include it here, you’d still know what I meant. You know what, for this one, NSA: you’re welcome.
– “does weed make you constipated” – You know a couple decades of War On Drugs propaganda does not leave any government agency quickly.
– “hemlock flower for sale” – I NEED IT FOR JEWELRY REASONS, NSA, NOT TO POISON ANYONE. And for the record, I couldn’t find any. (Like I said, recurring.)
– “ketamine” – To be clear, I was searching for a hilarious sketch video about a cop going undercover at a gay club. I did not find it with that search.
– “a serbian film” – Let me advise you: Do Not Search. A review for a horror movie I was interested referenced it (it is indeed a film), and I thought I had to know the exact context for it. I really didn’t.
