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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8024
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8024
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

My feeling is that if your story is set in the real world with real-world technology and does not involve magic or sci-fi tech, you should do _some_ research (Wikipedia does not qualify) to make sure you aren't presenting something completely impossible. You don't have to have a legitimate medical explanation for your dream world — that can be "magical" or involve [TECH] waves or whatever — but getting there should be feasible.

By way of example, if I wanted to write about a male pregnancy, I wouldn't say that the conception happened orally, because the digestive system and the reproductive system don't cross paths, and the acid in the stomach would damage or destroy any fetal material. But I _could,_ without much more than lay medical knowledge, have a male character who was trans FtoM, or a hermaphrodite with a blind uterus, or a government agent with a secret pouch created behind his navel. Those situations are stretches, but not against the laws of medicine and biology as we know them.

Basically you should research just enough to make sure that actual experts are not going to fling your book across the room yelling.

Original score: 0