Don't have any suggestions but I just want to throw in my two cents about the unwritten rules being discussed here.
When it comes to homework, I am one of the most vocal of the objectors. I won't answer a question that even LOOKS like homework. The purpose of homework is not for someone else to do the research and the details or even point the student in the right direction. They are being graded on THEIR work and for someone else to supply them with answers or research direction is, in my view, cheating. I'm taking grad courses right now (well, not this minute; I'm not enrolled in the summer semester) and I would never dream of asking someone on an internet board for answers, or even to tell me where to find the answers. That's MY job. I'm supposed to turn in MY work. Not someone else's.
However, when it comes to someone writing a novel, I am less hard-nosed. I am also a writer, and I don't have a problem with asking research questions of those who already may know the answer. I'm not being graded on it and I'm not asking anyone else to do any of the writing for me. It's not the same as a homework question, whether the ability to find the answers is part of the grade. Any future publisher isn't going to care where I got the research questions answered as long as I got them right, but a high school teacher or college professor is going to care if a student didn't do their own work.
P.S. Among my husband's many sources of income is adjunct college professor, and he makes his students write a lot of research papers.
So others may feel differently, but while I will not answer any question that has any kind of "homework" feel about it (and I'll be pretty obnoxious about it, too
) I don't mind in the least answering research questions for other novelists.
