I hate research. I spent hours yesterday and didn't find a word I liked for the storyteller/bard/skald/balladeer in my 1001 Nights story (which might be only 11 days long) or what to call a leather crafter (someone who buys already tanned leather and sells belts and harnesses) without using the term "-smith" because then I have to call the guy who makes the buckles and D-rings for the belts, etc., a blacksmith which makes me (and probably readers) think of swords and plows, but I did find a list of old occupations, some of which I can never unread (misused children kill me every time).
I said I wasted hours, but my husband says that if all those pages give me even one idea, it wasn't a waste.
Well, this morning, what I read as my normal morning routine wasn't up (and won't be all week) so I decided to go through my bookmarks and get rid of the ones that don't go anywhere or have changed so radially that they are no longer useful (I mean you Nickelodeon baby name page). I moved like things together and emptied two folders altogether. And then I clicked on
little_details.
Now I might not like doing research, but I sure enjoyed reading it. I read about the Temptation of Thomas when someone asked about a missing heir scenario. The trials of having a character tell an asexual one what the joys of kisses are when the author is also asexual and doesn't see the joy of kisses themselves. That menstrual blood acts differently to other blood when someone asked if hours in blood would prune up fingers. What a muggle would call Dumbledore. What semis/eighteen-wheelers are called in other parts of the country. What disease would killed a already unhealthy 50 yr old over a matter of weeks or months. How to get regular eclipses or get longer days than nights. What 10% less gravity would feel like. What kind of stab wounds would keep a victim alive just long enough to relate info only they knew... And I've only read six months worth.
So does that mean getting sucked in was not a waste of time? No, I'm afraid it still was.
(and this is might be my last day off with no one else home until after Valentines' Day.)