July Challenge - days 11 and 12

[in_lighter_ink]

Sorry about yesterday, folks -- had some internet issues here. Gotta love technology.

But. How were your Mondays? How's it going today?


Today, I've:
--Written
--Edited
--Sent to beta
--Posted
--Planned/Plotted/Researched
--Something else I'll describe in comments

Speaking of research, what's the oddest, or most fun, or most esoteric thing you've ever had to research for a fic? Did you end up using that information?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I'm sorry you had internet problems! Hope they've all sorted themselves out.

I didn't do anything ficcy at all yesterday, but today I managed a bit of editing on my main WIP & 780-ish words of fic prattle for 750 Words. None of that is usable, I think, but it possibly got me thinking more clearly about a couple of characters, so that's a good result!

Because I mostly just write feeeeeeeling fic I never end up having to research anything v. wacky (b/c no wacky plots to support)! Really most of what I research is stuff like classroom layouts in Japanese high schools, or how practice for high school baseball teams there is organized. Also once what kinds of plants grow in Japan at what times of year. At least I mostly end up using the research.

[jagnikjen]

Lessee...Monday morning I worked on either my challenge fic or my original fic, but I can't remember which. Then I had no desire to work on either of those two the rest of the day, so last night I finished three short fics that had been hanging around for awhile. And to be quite honest, I don't know why they weren't finished in the first place. ;P

Worked on the original fic today and finally hit that monumental 7500 word mark I'd been fretting over and then blew right past it. Still have a ways to go to finish, but it's flowing, so I'm happy about that.

As for research...nothing especially interesting that I can remember. Sorry. :)

[jagnikjen]

Oh, wait--I stayed at a specific expensive hotel for my anniversary because I started a story and wanted to know what that hotel was like.

[curuchamion]

Oh, research. :D

There was the time I had to research the ignition temperature of a fictional mineral... though that wasn't even for my story, I was beta reading. Then I've recently filed a motorcycle ride under "research" (for a specific fic, yeah), and also watching King Lear (for a different fic that has nothing to do with Shakespeare.) To me, pretty much anything can be research.

As to my writing: a thousand words of orig!fic rewritten today. It wants further rewriting, but it's getting there.

(Also found out that I stopped at least two different scenes of the same story in places that make me go AUGH BUT I WANTED TO READ THE REST! o_O)

[msmcknittington]

(Also found out that I stopped at least two different scenes of the same story in places that make me go AUGH BUT I WANTED TO READ THE REST! o_O)

Don't you hate that? I both look forward to and dread the point when I'm writing something where I just want to read the rest of the story but I know I have to write it first. :/

[msmcknittington]

It's been a while since I checked in! I've been writing in 750 Words almost daily, with somewhat sporadic success. So, slow progress, but progress all the same. As we all know, progress by any other name would feel just as awesome.

The most esoteric thing I've ever research for a fic was what sort of plants would be appropriate to grow in a churchyard in Regency England. Here is what I discovered: I could not answer this question with any real accuracy. So I just watched a lot of historical dramas set in the first half of the 19th century, kept my eyes open for plants in churchyards, and figured from the look of the bushes I saw that they were most likely privet or box hedges. So I went with privet because I liked the way it sounded better. I also ended up doing a little research on early 19th-century pig breeds and pig latin for that fic. Esoteric, yes.

[terajk]

Didn't write yesterday, but I wrote maybe 100 words today. I had to stop when person A made person B so mad she has to think of a comeback. (This happens to me).

The most unusual thing I've researched (so far) is the symbolic meaning of different types of flowers in Japanese culture, for a drabble that was 100 words.

[littlebutfierce]

the symbolic meaning of different types of flowers in Japanese culture

Oooh, if you happen to still have any links from that, would you mind shooting them my way? Gardening/plant stuff seems to keep coming up in my Natsume fic, so that could be potentially useful! (but if the research is gone, no worries!)

[lexicalcrow]

Not much writing, tbh. I haven't been particularly inspired. Still looking for a beta for my au_bigbang fic. No one seems interested. I am disappoint. :( I'm not even looking for a canon beta anymore. Just someone to read over it and tell me if it's as terrible as I think it is. D: (Pretty sure it needs some srs revision. And the ending's crap. But I don't know what to change.)

I've researched so many weird things. I can't decide what's the weirdest. So many little pedantic things too, like did they have zips in the UK in 1943? (Yes, they did.) And wrist watches. (Yes to that too.) Things I take for granted but would seem weird if they weren't around back then. So I check. Even if it's a flyby reference that no one's probably going to notice again ever. XD

I've looked up alchemical symbols and the language of flowers before. Prehistoric British tribes. Stonehenge. School systems and house plans. Canal maps. How long it would take to sail up a river. How fast trains could go in 1822. Various other weird things. OH. Titles and peerages. Castles. Homosexuality laws. Midsummer rites. Boy fairies. December holiday traditions. All sorts of weird things. I am a prolific researcher. I spend too much time on Google Earth, just looking up places. 95% of my saved places are fic-related.

[linaewen]

No writing happened. Didn't even think about it all day. It's just not a good week this week -- too hectic around here. I hope I can actually write this week, because if I don't, it will mean all-nighters later in order to finish my Big Bang on time...

I've done a lot of interesting research, but the most fun (and possibly the most odd) was researching how long it would take a small object floating on a fairly-rapid flowing river to go from point A to point B -- the goal being that it had to arrive within a certain amount of time in order to fit with canon events (one of my AU yet canon plot points about which I'm rather a stickler). I researched canon timelines, calculated like mad and even did an experiment with sticks in a stream and a stop watch to time how long it took those sticks to reach a certain point. The end result was very satisfying and my plot point worked wonderfully. Thankfully, I didn't have to cut it after all that work!

I believe that when one does tons of research on a topic, even if you don't end up using it in your fic per se, somehow the fact that you have all this invisible knowledge and background behind you (like what they are drinking!) comes through in how you write about it, even if you don't go into detail like you thought you would.

Unless you totally cut the scene, of course! :-D

[bay_alexison]

The last two days I didn't do any writing, although last night I got started on grammar editing a bit on my slashfest fic. Didn't get too much of that done because I keep getting distracted thanks to my mom keep asking me to do all sorts of chores after I got back home from work. D: Hopefully today I'll get the editing done AND maybe some writing too.

Hm, I think the oddest thing I researched is tea. In my slashfest fic the two characters were drinking tea and then I decided to look through the different kinds. XD I already admit long time ago though there were times where I wished I could have researched something but it didn't cross my mind to do so for some reason, ack.

[rhi]

Very little writing done here, although some crossovers were brainstormed while I was on vacation. And the oddest thing I think I've ever researched was how long ago muffins were first baked. And yup, I ended up using it in the story.