I like writing about addicts. I don’t know why. I suffer no addictions myself. No addiction more serious than cigarettes has touched my family. But there’s something fascinating about a character whose motivations stem from something dark and hard within them.<\/p>\n
Herein lies the problem: write what you know<\/em> utterly fails me here. I lived with a friend who smoked pot when I graduated high school1<\/sup>; I have a handful of relatives and friends who roll that way as well, or used to. That’s it. Beyond my skin-deep understanding of the lifestyle of mid-twenties recreational pot smokers, I need research. For that, I have Erowid<\/a>.<\/p>\n I have a love\/hate relationship with Erowid. The layout is ridiculous; it’s like someone designed it in 2001 and hasn’t looked back. But you know what? The information is great, and there is a lot<\/em> of it. Psychotropic plants and legality and chemistry? Seriously, if you’re going to write about a drug, check it out.<\/p>\n Body Modification Ezine (BME)<\/a> is another interesting resource for writing about characters — and it feels significantly more modern! They’ve got a pretty solid wiki<\/a> and there are lots and lots of photos and thousands of personal stories. I feel like it’d be a solid resource for character concepts., if you were writing about someone with heavy modifications or wanted to see inside the head of someone who does.<\/p>\n