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writethisfanficMiddle of the first week! How are things so far?
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?
Poll #6871 WIP challenge day 4 check-in!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15
What kind of fic day are you having today?
And is that better or worse than yesterday?
What fic-ly things did you do?
View Answers
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?
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?
Tags:
no subject
Date: Thursday, May 5th, 2011 05:34 (UTC)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
no subject
Date: Thursday, May 5th, 2011 05:47 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: Thursday, May 5th, 2011 05:55 (UTC)It's always the little things that lots of people know, but aren't quite common knowledge. In my case, I've never stayed overnight in a hospital, so I've never had to find out if you can take a shower with an IV in or not. But if I had gotten it wrong, I'm sure that a lot of people would have noticed.
Kids books are fantastic for research. If you just need a basic outline of whatever you're researching, and don't need to go into copious amounts of detail, they're great. And way more interesting. I'd much rather read "Raptor Pack!" than the 20 pound book full of tiny print and things I can't pronounce if they've both got the information that I need.
no subject
Date: Thursday, May 5th, 2011 19:40 (UTC)I can definitely see the advantage of kids' books--if nothing else, you can figure out much quicker if the book has the info you want. And if it's complicated stuff (say, rocket science or something, ha ha), it's already broken down into easier terms, which should make it easier to integrate it into your fic w/o doing an impenetrable infodump (& risking getting something wrong while you do it).
no subject
Date: Thursday, May 5th, 2011 12:36 (UTC)Now just keep it going.