There is a scene in my head for my NaNo novel that required some research. I did that research the other day, and discovered that the information I need is not immediately available on the internet. I found it, with a little searching, but it shouldn’t have been that hard. I was only trying to find the names of monsters that take on a female shape to suck the life from men.
It turns out that most female spirits/monsters/nasty things either are more interested in stealing children, or luring men to their doom. They are also frequently tied to a specific location (water seems to be a common theme). There aren’t actually that many monsters that keep their men alive for very long, but I did find a couple. Fortunately, that’s all I need. It turned out to be a lot of research for a very brief mention in the (as yet unwritten) novel. It’s important, though, and since I’ve done the research in advance I won’t have to pause in the writing to compile a list.
By the way, the antagonist in my novel is not a female monster who slowly sucks the life out of her victims. It’s simply a theory that gets suggested as the main characters are trying to figure out what’s really going on. 🙂
