WIP challenge - day 4 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

Middle of the first week! How are things so far?

Poll #6871 WIP challenge day 4 check-in!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

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What kind of fic day are you having today?

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Terrible
1 (6.7%)

Ehhhhh...
4 (26.7%)

All right
8 (53.3%)

Amazing!
2 (13.3%)

And is that better or worse than yesterday?

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Better!
9 (60.0%)

Worse
1 (6.7%)

Exactly the same
5 (33.3%)

What fic-ly things did you do?

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Write
10 (66.7%)

Edit
2 (13.3%)

Research
1 (6.7%)

Send to beta
1 (6.7%)

Procrastinate
5 (33.3%)

Something else I will describe in comments
3 (20.0%)

And my favorite question! In 3 words or less, how are you feeling about the fic?

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And for a discussion topic, how about we talk about research? As usual, the fanfic flamingo has relevant commentary:



[Background — a six piece pie style colour split in three shades of pink. Foreground — the long neck and face of a pink flamingo.

Top text: WAIT, WHAT SHOULD THEY DRINK?

Bottom text: SPEND 7 HOURS RESEARCHING WINE, THEN CUT SCENE]

Does your current fic require any research? If so, want to tell us what about? Where do you tend to find research materials for your fic? Is it difficult to pull yourself out of research to get back to writing, or is research your least favorite part? And how do you organize all your research once you've dug it all up?

Comments

[dragovianknight]

I am blessed with a canon that spans a zillion incarnations, and in any given incarnations, even the creators aren't all that consistent. All research would do is my my brain bleed, so the closest I come is one more viewing of the DVDs.

[littlebutfierce]

Hee, fair enough! Also that means you've got some leeway yourself, as far as canon consistency, which is nice! I don't think I tend to do tons of research on canon itself (though I take a bunch of notes when I'm reading); there are frequently little outside details that I end up needing to know, though.

[glitteryv]

Oh, cool. So you can pick and choose, eh? *g*

[littlebutfierce]

I wrote a set of linked drabbles. I have this longish (for me) story, or possibly set of stories, about my OT3 from Natsume Yuujinchou. Every now & again, for my 750 Words, I write snippets from this. It's all in a big file & at some point I need to go through it all & start making something of it. But tonight I had this idea for a drabble series, so I did some of that. I think a lot of it will actually end up getting assimilated into the larger story (& thus not be a drabble series anymore). Also, man, writing this OT3 always makes me squee. I should remember that: writing them puts me in a good mood. I should do that more often!

Research: In the past I've done a bunch of research on baseball (in Japan & the US, mostly the former, including high school baseball). Most of my fics are fairly easy, research-wise; I only need little details here & there which are relatively simple. For example, I need to go look up what time department stores in Japan tend to close.

I save relevant web pages & reference images in Scrivener. I also type up notes while I'm reading manga on the computer; there's several drafts in my Gmail that are notes on various series.

I don't think I've ever been in danger of getting lost in research & never emerging! I like doing it, for the most part, but it's easy for me to remember it's all in service of a fic that I'm writing.

[glitteryv]

The way I see it, there might be more pressure when the canon has to do with realistically military stuff OR real medical dramas. Basically, because there will be more people ready to call a writer if the main character gets released from the hospital after getting shot in the head, for example.

[jagnikjen]

I haven't had a chance to do any writing today--I've doing other fandom related things though (in between actually doing my day job ;p ).

Hopefully, tonight I'll get some writing time in. And I just remembered that I can post one of my finished fics--oh, except dang I haven't heard back from beta yet. Grr.. Oh, well.

Research--one fandom has required some reading on a wide variety topics--you know Robin Hood takes place in the Middle Ages so, yeah... Mostly I Google for what I need to know.

Harry Potter fandom, a Google search there also usually yields whatever I'm looking for.

I'll update later this evening with any word count progress.

[glitteryv]

Hee, I wonder what all of us did before Google.

[littlebutfierce]

Darn day jobs, getting in the way. ;_;

I hope you heard back from your beta; posting fics is so satisfying!!

[jagnikjen]

Only about 50 new words cuz I got sucked into watching Glee...

But I did get to post my fic after all, so I'm happy with doing that.

Just waiting for all the feedback now...

(*crickets chirping*)

[anehan]

1,525 words today. I'm on track! I had such trouble beginning, but then towards the end of the section I got an inspiration and writing the last 600 words was a breeze. I think I'm stopping here because I have a nice scene break and the next scene promises to be moderately long. But I'm feeling good about tomorrow's writing.

As to research, well, dwircle knows all! My current fic takes place in Germany, so I'm taking shamelessly advantage of my dwircle. I also use Wikipedia for the kind of information that can be found there, such as what are the faculties at the University of Hamburg, etc. But unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn't tell me things like whether Germans take shoes off inside their homes or not (it turns out they do). For those kind of things, the dwircle is indispensable.

I don't mind research, but it's not my favourite either. I'd like it better if it was easier to find the kind of info that I need. I'm lucky in my current fic that I have several German people on my dwircle and that I can ask for their help.

[glitteryv]

Yays for being on track! That's the cool thing about writing: there's a point where the words are literally flowing. Like a feedback loop of awesome, eh?

Ah, I love Wikipedia. Where else would I find out what the weather in Marrakesh might be like in October? *g* (Answer: Somewhere between 14 and 27 degrees Celsius.)

[littlebutfierce]

WOOHOO!! Yay for you--that's awesome that you've found your stride. Long may it last!

There's also factfinding for the (rare, heh) occasion when one's circle isn't able to help. I'd love to see more questions there--if only so that someday I might be able to answer some!

[jagnikjen]

Great word count! Keep going!

[charamei]

I. AM. DONE.

It's in_lighter_ink's problem now XD

Research... I get hung up on the oddest details. (One of my more recent questions on Yahoo! answers was 'What does an elephant's breath smell like?'). Canon-wise, Who is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because any given piece of canon or in-universe law of nature has been retconned at least twice, and a curse because that basically means you have to build your own personal fanon out of whatever canon and pseudocanon feels right. And then it has to be consistent. BECAUSE I CARE, EVEN IF THE BEEB DON'T.

I generally don't organise my research, though: I'm either researching something that I need right this moment (elephant breath) or I'm looking for something to help create a general feel (I read and re-read plenty of my old Classics textbooks before doing NaNo this year). The former, it's obvious where it needs to go. The latter works better by osmosis.

I do tend to get buried in it a bit though. Protip: don't join the Hellenic Society just to gain access to their library so you can research for NaNo. (Join it for the AGM! And the journals! And the super-awesome library! And because all the cool kids hang out at Senate House!)

[glitteryv]

BECAUSE I CARE, EVEN IF THE BEEB DON'T.

I can imagine that the Who canon is all kinds of topsy-turvy.

[littlebutfierce]

YAAAAAAAAY! CONGRATULATIONS!!! *throws confetti* I hope you are doing a little bit of well-deserved resting on your laurels!

I can definitely see how the looseness of Doctor Who canon could be both freeing &... really stressful!

[raletha]

I'm back to daydreaming and plotting in my head; that's about all I've done so far. ^^;; I've been super tired, busy, and stressed the past few weeks so it may take me some time to get back to the keyboard properly.

Research-wise, of the two fics I've been working on most, one doesn't require much research (I looked up some stuff about the Stanford Torus space colony design, but didn't really need it, and refreshed a little background story for the characters involved) -- it's pretty much just smut. The other has some harder science fiction elements I've been researching: largely cryogenics, radiation sickness, and nano-molecular medicine. It's fun. Most won't really feature explicitly, but I always like to do the research anyway. It feels better than bluffing my way through, and it's really fun learning new stuff. The thing with writing is you never know when some little tidbit you researched, but didn't immediately use, will spur some later development or plot refinement -- or even show up in a subsequent story.

I use books, the internet, and knowledgeable people for my research, but I don't really organise much beyond bookmarking stuff and adding notes to drafts and outlines. Mostly, I just let myself be a sponge; my subconscious can do the work.

Much ♥ for fanfic flamingo!

[glitteryv]

Do you take notes on your daydreaming/plotting? You never know what might come out of it.

*mock glares at science* It's kinda cool (YAY, SCIENCE!) and annoying (when you feel like you're bluffing, but you really can't absorb any more knowledge so you kinda let science slide a bit?), isn't it?

[curuchamion]

TODAY WAS EPICALLY AWESOME.

A good friend slapped me upside the head (verbally) and told me to stop worrying about research for my not!NaNo and wriiiiiite. She also gave me a couple of good suggestions for working on a piece of character development that had me stymied.

So today involved writing about:

* how the random college grad came to be part of the MCs' surrogate family;
* church choirs;
* bonding over shared love of GK Chesterton (I went completely crazy with the random fun quotes that have nothing to do with any philosophical meaning of the story, which is awesome for my wordcount and also for my mood about stories that quote GK Chesterton);
* burned split-pea soup;
* and something that may be the ending. I hope it's as lovely as I feel like it is right now. Asexuality and anagnorisis and ice cream, yes! *hugs all characters*

Now I have something like 42,000 words of middle-of-the-book to write. O_O

[glitteryv]

WOOT TO EPICAL AWESOMENESS! I know you can write all of those words. *cheers you on*

[glitteryv]

Though inspired to work on my goal fic, I ended up writing a 1k-word one year in the future!fic for my goal fic. Somehow, it gave me perspective on what the main pairing will have to go through in my (actual) goal fic for this month. Weird, huh?

As for research, I mostly google/Wikipedia things such as maps, regional foods, gun models, etc.

For the most part, I tend to research-as-I-outline. Like, in my goal fic, I have to somewhat adhere to a very specific timeline for one half of the couple. I spent some time working out the logistics of where that character (and everyone close him) was in RL so that I could then work out where his fictional boyfriend would be before they met each other.

I rarely, if ever, get bogged down by heavy research. The one exception was this one time I was writing a fic about a bakery and I needed to *really* soak up info on the what and how of pastry-making because I don't know how to bake. *g*

[littlebutfierce]

I think that makes sense, about the futurefic giving you needed perspective for your goal fic! Plus, hey, writing is writing, so yay for your 1000 words!

Hahahaha, I have several snippets for the series Antique Bakery in my WIP folder, & part of the reason they haven't gone anywhere further is b/c I need to look up some more baking stuff (I do bake, but not fancily & I certainly don't know the types of chemical reactions & things that mix well together w/o the prompting of a recipe). That, & boy bands in Japan in a certain era. Which would be fun to research, it just hasn't been top of my list yet.

[chibifukurou]

I scrapped my previous 1500+ beginning of a fic and started over. With one of my least favorite tropes. Fighting spouses, who are going to split up as the catalyst for the story.

Research isn't really my thing. Usually I take a few ideas and run with them, then check the details later. If I research to much then I tend to loose track of the story.

[littlebutfierce]

It takes a lot of courage to scrap writing, especially a large-ish chunk like that, so props to you for going ahead w/it! Good luck starting over--maybe using one of your least favorite tropes will stretch your writing muscles in a good way. :)

[xpaperplanex]

I managed about 500 words today, which is much better than yesterday's day of pain and plunking away one-handedly at comment replies, but not great, either.

So far, my current fic has required research about brain damage, dinosaurs, dinosaur digs and other palaeontology type things, various little medical things that are so obvious if you get them wrong, assisted suicide/euthanasia devices, and product manuals. ...It's been interesting. I usually just use the internet, but I had a lot of fun going to the library and finding some childrens' dinosaur books. The net stuff seemed to be all geared towards adults, and my fic has a kid learning about dinosaurs, so I wanted to know what kind of info books for kids have.

I have a lot of fun researching and often keep following link after link long after I've gotten the info I needed. I'm not so big on organization. But I think my bookmarks would probably be highly disturbing is some random person came across them! I often use a notebook to take notes; I'm not very good at going from one screen to another and remembering what was on the first one. A middleman helps out with that, even though I can barely read my writing XP

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for the 500 words!! I'm sorry your day yesterday was full of pain--that doesn't sound good. :(

various little medical things that are so obvious if you get them wrong

Yeah, those kinds of things (though not medical in my case) trip me up a lot. :/

Using kids books sounds like a really neat idea, even if you don't have a kid in the fic.

[soc_puppet]

I wrote nothing today 8D I mean, it's hypothetically possible that I might write a few words before I go to sleep, but highly unlikely. I am tired and Tuesday was stressful and today has done little to prepare me for the non-writing-related aspects of Thursday. If I am incredibly lucky, though, I will get a chance to do fic-navel-gazing while I water the plants. I know I'll have plenty of time to write during my lunch break, if nothing else.


Ah, research. I usually collect it passively, to tell the truth. "Oh hey, you can super-heat diamonds and turn them into CO2 with liquid oxygen? I can totally use that in a fic someday!" That's how I regard most learning, actually. IDK, I'm worn out and can't recall off the top of my head any specific heavy research I've done for any given thing, aside from maybe "researching" canon.

[littlebutfierce]

Awwww, I'm sorry you weren't able to write today. Although I'm glad you have some definite writing time upcoming! I find writing during the week to be iffy a lot of the time, just b/c I get home from work exhausted.

Hee, the beauties of passive learning! Though I need to be better about writing down stuff like that (& citing it) when I hear it & it piques my interest, b/c otherwise I'll remember it months later & have no idea where I got it & get worried that I'm remembering it wrong for use in my fic.

[bay_alexison]

Well I first wrote around 400 words of one fic that has been on my mind for a while (and not part of this challenge, haha) and then around over 600 words of one of my help_japan fic. Overall, got 1000 words accomplished today, woot! :D The problem with the help_japan fic though is I'm having a bit of trouble how to make the conversation flow and I keep changing the dialogue. @_@ Now, to decide whether to have a couple more characters barge in and think over how to end that story. XD

Over the research, haha there are actually times where I could have done the research. For instance, I was doing a fic from a blind person's POV, but for some reason researching blindness hasn't crossed my mind. D: That goes the same with castles when I had to describe one in great detail, LOL.

However, when I do research I would look over stuff for a couple hours. Usually I bookmark some websites and saved them in different folders according to what subject I'm looking at. There are also times I would copy and past the relevant information I needed and put the document in the folder where I also keep my main story, the outline, and the beta notes. I tend to not be that organized with my research though because half the time I would just look over one thing I needed and then get to writing immediately.

[jagnikjen]

1000 words are fantastic, no matter what. Great job!

[snowynight]

With the encouragement with my wonderful beta, today I wrote 4000 words on a fic. I hope I can keep the speed.


As for research, I mostly google/Wikipedia things. For my 2 fics, I googled how to overthrow a government, what to treat a 1930's man, stone age culture and Renaissance common life.

[jagnikjen]

Woo hoo! You are made of awesomesauce! You can do it!!

[dchan]

I really need to JUST. START. WRITING. One of my fics is researched and even outlined, but when it comes time to put words to the page I always get distracted and wander off. *sigh*

On the plus side, I managed to write up a RP post that I've owed someone for the past week and half(ish), so at least I'm sooort of writing things? Just not my fics. XP

On Research

[dchan]

Does your current fic require any research? If so, want to tell us what about?
My White Collar fic required me to research various things, the most complicated of which was trying to match up the timeline of the series with specific dates. I also had to research a bit of stuff about money laundering, colleges in Asia, and countries that do not have extradition treaties with the United States, among other things. Oh, and what cities around the world have Fashion Weeks and when.

My other fic doesn't require any research.

Where do you tend to find research materials for your fic?
Wikipedia, mostly, or random google searching. My google-fu is pretty strong.

Is it difficult to pull yourself out of research to get back to writing, or is research your least favorite part?
I loooooove research, and I will take any opportunity to procrastinate on writing by doing more research. *sweatdrop*

And how do you organize all your research once you've dug it all up?
I've got a Google doc of fic notes--relevant info I've found from my research usually goes in there or into the outline of the fic.