"Geek?" "Present!"

Well, even though I've made almost no progress in TDD (the latest draft chapter has been stalled for an entire month, and I haven't really resolved the future logistical plotholes), I'm feeling a lot better about it. I just can't stay discouraged about it for very long, I guess.

You know, I've lurked for years on the LOTR_Costume group (at Yahoo). Even though that group gave me the impetus to learn how to sew (albeit primitively), I was one of those content to just let my designs be LOTR...ish. But I still enjoyed reading all the posts from the more die-hard costumers, the ones who visit FIDM and come back with detailed sketches; the ones who buy the toys just to analyze the outfits. The ones who spend hours debating whether a shadow in a photo is a fold or a seam or a trick of the light. The ones who tool their own leather and cast their own armor in fiberglass. I thought I'd never get that passionate about...well, any hobby...myself, but I was happy to see people who were so into what they obviously loved.

But noooo. I'm only just now realizing (forest, trees) that I do do much the same thing, just in a different medium. I admit it: given the proper motivation (i.e., fic, and ay there's the rub), I'm a total research junkie. Just can't get enough of the stuff. The reading's fascinating and one thing leads to another, and to another--things that I never had the slightest inkling about. Like why most guitars have ebony fingerboards, or what the floorplate of a handgun is, or how a bullfight is conducted. And you find the most amazing things online: USGS maps from 100+ years ago, books long OOP, archived posts from Erik Shilling (original member of the Flying Tigers, and wasn't that a total shock to see, after having read about him in so many other places). Every time I come across something like that, I'm just blown away.

Of course, very little of the total research actually makes it into the fic, at least in a form that can be easily pointed to. There's no way all but a fraction of the facts could be spelled out in the text without being utterly superfluous; I mean, Victor Hugo could do it, but he's Victor Hugo. It's a fact that Croton water comes from up in Westchester County, but all my characters care about is that there's still running water in lower Manhattan. And yet...and this is the other thing that keeps me researching...if I hadn't looked up Westchester, I wouldn't even have known there was any running water to write about in the first place. And so on and so on.

"Geek?" "Present!"

Well, even though I've made almost no progress in TDD (the latest draft chapter has been stalled for an entire month, and I haven't really resolved the future logistical plotholes), I'm feeling a lot better about it. I just can't stay discouraged about it for very long, I guess.

You know, I've lurked for years on the LOTR_Costume group (at Yahoo). Even though that group gave me the impetus to learn how to sew (albeit primitively), I was one of those content to just let my designs be LOTR...ish. But I still enjoyed reading all the posts from the more die-hard costumers, the ones who visit FIDM and come back with detailed sketches; the ones who buy the toys just to analyze the outfits. The ones who spend hours debating whether a shadow in a photo is a fold or a seam or a trick of the light. The ones who tool their own leather and cast their own armor in fiberglass. I thought I'd never get that passionate about...well, any hobby...myself, but I was happy to see people who were so into what they obviously loved.

But noooo. I'm only just now realizing (forest, trees) that I do do much the same thing, just in a different medium. I admit it: given the proper motivation (i.e., fic, and ay there's the rub), I'm a total research junkie. Just can't get enough of the stuff. The reading's fascinating and one thing leads to another, and to another--things that I never had the slightest inkling about. Like why most guitars have ebony fingerboards, or what the floorplate of a handgun is, or how a bullfight is conducted. And you find the most amazing things online: USGS maps from 100+ years ago, books long OOP, archived posts from Erik Shilling (original member of the Flying Tigers, and wasn't that a total shock to see, after having read about him in so many other places). Every time I come across something like that, I'm just blown away.

Of course, very little of the total research actually makes it into the fic, at least in a form that can be easily pointed to. There's no way all but a fraction of the facts could be spelled out in the text without being utterly superfluous; I mean, Victor Hugo could do it, but he's Victor Hugo. It's a fact that Croton water comes from up in Westchester County, but all my characters care about is that there's still running water in lower Manhattan. And yet...and this is the other thing that keeps me researching...if I hadn't looked up Westchester, I wouldn't even have known there was any running water to write about in the first place. And so on and so on.