dancing gets her higher than anything else she knows

[musesfool]

This is one of those posts I'd have probably made on Saturday if technology hadn't been messing with me, and it's something I thought about all weekend, so I just need to get it out

Comments

[melwil]

I don't even watch Supernatural, and now you've made me want to read a fic where Sam and Dean actually wear American-style jumpers . . .

[musesfool]

Bwahahahahaha! That would be awesome. But only if they were really disgruntled about it.

[bexone]

...I'm picturing a cross-dressing fic gone terribly, terribly wrong. *G*

[executrix]

You can tell that Martha Grimes (an American who relocated to Britain and writing about Britons) must have pissed off her copy editors, because one of her early mysteries has an English millionaire playing golf wearing "knickers and a vest."

[merryish]

It only takes a minute or two to Google the players you are planning to use, to make sure you have their positions correct, etc.

I'm off on a tangent here. I'm totally in agreement about making the little details work, but you know what annoys me almost more than seeing a writer get the little details wrong?

Seeing a writer ask on LJ about a little detail that they could totally Google in like, five minutes. Wtf? You are too lazy to take five minutes with your browser to find the answer to your question, but not too lazy to take five minutes to post your question and make me (or whoever knows the answer) take five minutes to be your library? Especially when it's something that is totally online, like legal information, or government processes, or sports statistics, or as you said, what song was on which album. What is with that? Are people afraid they might accidentally be exposed to more information than they need?

I mean, I'm a slacker, I know from slack, but that? That is downright slothful.

[musesfool]

OMG! What's even worse than that is when people come to MY LJ and ask me in my comments if I can answer their really freaking random questions. When, let's face it, I am frequently not the quickest responder to comments. By the time I respond, generally, they could have looked up the information and finished whatever the hell it was they needed it for, especially as those are comments I tend to let sit because I am annoyed.

[tsuki_no_bara]

i admit to doing that occasionally, but it's because i don't know what to google to get the info i need, or how to sift thru all the links that it would throw out. it's a lot easier for me to ask my flist what kind of education/experience you need to be a paralegal than it is for me to try and google it. i have some lawyers and people who work in law offices on the flist, so it's not like i'm asking a question that everyone else will have to look up in order to answer. (plus which, i got some useful extra info that way.)

but if i wanted to know, say, the capital of south dakota, or the square mileage of venice, or the title and track listing of bruce springsteen's second album, or if the '65 mustang came in two-door or four-door versions, or both, and what kind of engine it had, yeah, that's a google search. i can find that out on my own a lot easier than polling lj.

[musesfool]

Well, yes, like I asked my flist for information about Newark, because it is someplace I've only really ever passed through, and I wasn't finding the kind of information I needed via googling.

But basic information, like the driving distance between Duluth and Milwaukee, or what year The English Patient came out - those I look up myself and expect other people to do so.

[deirdre_c]

one niggling detail about nixies and three hours later you look up blurry and shocked from an article about transsexual midget prostitutes in Dubai

This is where I am right now, alas. I'm currently trying to write a story set in Rome-- a city I've never visited-- and I cannot get over my basic lack of feel for the locale. So whenever I sit down to write a scene, I'm invariably distracted by an hour's more research. And then nap time is over and the writing opportunity for the day is gone. Boo.

[musesfool]

Yeah, see, that's the kind of thing I'd start asking people about in person (or over email), because it's hard to get a feel for places you've never been. I know I spent a lot of time reading about London when I was writing HP fic, and questioning people about it, and I'm sure I still didn't capture it. But at a certain point, I just had to stop researching and start writing.

Research can be such a time-suck.

[celtprincess13]

This is precisely the reason why some of the stories in my head will never be written. Because I don't know enough about the base subject matter to do it justice. For instance, someone gave me a great bunny about Character A being a marine biologist and meeting/falling for Character B who is a mermaid. Now the mermaid stuff, I could totally go with that and have my own mythology and rules and everything. But I don't know jack shit about marine biology. And I wouldn't want to insult or annoy any passing marine (or any other type, really) biologists who might be reading

[musesfool]

Well, see, I think you could probably read a book or two on marine biology, enough to get you going, and you could probably write to someone at a local university with that kind of expertise. I mean, if you were dedicated and really wanted to get it right. There are resources out there.

At least try to have the brothers talk like real irishmen in fic,

heh. Well, I think fic writers probably use the fact that it was written by an American to get themselves out of that one. but I hear you. And not like a bad parody of an Irishman, either.

[celtprincess13]

Oh yeah, I definitely could do the marine biologist research. But I'm afraid, knowing myself as I do, that I would get so caught up in the research that the story would never get written. But hey, it's still on the list, so it's always possible, right? Right! Because if there's one thing I know, it's that you can find info about almost anything on the interwebs.

[musesfool]

Yeah, research is a dangerous trap. At a certain point, you have to give it up and just hope you've absorbed enough to get the feel of a thing right, and not worry so much about every nitpicky thing. The other thing I've noticed is that I at least have to stop myself from throwing in all the random nitpicky stuff that maybe the characters *wouldn't* know, because they know something from practice, not from reading about it on wikipedia or whatever.

[kathrynthegr8]

"Write what you know." Best advice ever.

But yeah. ITA. I rewatch episodes, asks friends if I don't know a detail, make use of the interwebz for things I need to know.

ETA: Nothing worse than reading a sex scene written by someone not experienced. I haven't come across too many, my fandom's authors tend to be older. But for fandoms like "Twilight"... Makes my head hurt.

Oh yeah. Something that popped up on my f-list that I found funny:
http://www.i-mockery.com/visionary/geek-hierarchy.php

I know you don't know me, but I like your fanfic. And I love your posts about fanfic, fandom, and writing. You articulate your thoughts and opinions so well.

*goes back to lurking*

[musesfool]

Well, I don't even think it's so much "write what you know" as "look up stuff you don't know, so you don't look like a moron to someone who does."

I rewatch episodes, asks friends if I don't know a detail, make use of the interwebz for things I need to know.

Exactly.

Oh yeah. Something that popped up on my f-list that I found funny:
http://www.i-mockery.com/visionary/geek-hierarchy.php

Yeah, that's been floating around for a while.

I know you don't know me, but I like your fanfic. And I love your posts about fanfic, fandom, and writing. You articulate your thoughts and opinions so well.

Hi. Thank you.