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Nov. 27th, 2007 02:36 pmToday turned out to be a research-for-fiction day.
So far I've covered binding machines, Garamond, Baskerville and Bodoni. Also I did a bit on recovering from planet-loss.
I think I shall spend the next few hours in Medieval London to improve my level of sanity. Research-for-fiction is research to make the world and book functional, which is why too much of it right now makes my mind go round in circles. I have to understand the subject, of course, but not to teach it or to contribute new understandings, but to slot it into the gap in my web of knowledge for that specific novel. I've never had the mind-going-round-in-circles thing before, but then, I've never written a pure SF novel before, either.
Anyhow, I think I have enough so I can send it all to my backbrain, happily teach and then return and write it into story. I need the thinking time because otherwise I end up with an enthusiastic description of what I've learned, rather than the bits of it which are utterly essential to the plot and characters plus the bits that are essential to understand the essential bits.
Tomorrow will be quite different, as it begins with eleciton haiku.
So far I've covered binding machines, Garamond, Baskerville and Bodoni. Also I did a bit on recovering from planet-loss.
I think I shall spend the next few hours in Medieval London to improve my level of sanity. Research-for-fiction is research to make the world and book functional, which is why too much of it right now makes my mind go round in circles. I have to understand the subject, of course, but not to teach it or to contribute new understandings, but to slot it into the gap in my web of knowledge for that specific novel. I've never had the mind-going-round-in-circles thing before, but then, I've never written a pure SF novel before, either.
Anyhow, I think I have enough so I can send it all to my backbrain, happily teach and then return and write it into story. I need the thinking time because otherwise I end up with an enthusiastic description of what I've learned, rather than the bits of it which are utterly essential to the plot and characters plus the bits that are essential to understand the essential bits.
Tomorrow will be quite different, as it begins with eleciton haiku.