Rather a Story

Okay, fellow writers, I have a question.

How do you handle real-life settings with which you're not familiar? I've been reading (dangerous, I know), and many of the books on writing all agree that having a strong setting will add richness and depth to your story.

On the surface, I totally agree. I am a big fan of good world-building when it comes to sci fi and fantasy, for instance. I also love books in which I get a real feel for the setting, the stench of a city's underbelly or the stark beauty of the cityscape at night, the fragrant smells of farmland, etc. I can usually tell when an author is writing about a setting they've lived in or experienced first hand.

The few times I've used setting to good effect, it's been when I was familiar with the locale. In my long-abandoned zombie novel, I was able to follow the characters from street to street and describe in very accurate detail not only what they were seeing, but the kind of weather they were experiencing, the colour of the buildings, etc. In another story, The Built in a Day Job, to be precise, I used my recent trip to Rome in the springtime to evoke all the sights and sounds and smells of the city that were vital to what I was trying to accomplish in my story.

So what am I supposed to do when I need to set my story in one or more places with which I'm not at all familiar? Somewhere I've never been? I can give overall impressions of a place based on research, but I have no idea how to get the level of detail I would like to put into a story. Is there really a shop on that street corner in Memphis? Is that a one-way street? What bus routes should my characters be taking in Calgary? Is there even reliable public transit? What's the weather like in Colorado in March? What did Cambridge smell like in summer in the late 1800s?

So how do you handle it when you have to write in an unfamiliar setting? Any advice?

Does anyone know of good books and/or resources that would explain the technical aspects of the preservation and, more importantly, the restoration of art works? More specifically paintings, but I am not especially picky about the medium if it comes down to it.

I am trying to write a story and realized that my plot kind of hinges on my understanding the ins and outs of how to restore paintings, which I emphatically do not. In fact, this is so far out of my league I don't even know where to start. /o\

Halp? Anyone? Bueller?

Hey folks!

Anyone know where I can get some logo-free high-quality downloads of Supernatural? I'm looking for all seasons, but I'll take what I can get. :)

Thanks!

So, theoretically, if I were to go to Wincon next year, would anyone be willing to share a room with me? I am very low-maintenance. ;)

*bats eyelashes*

I can pretty much only afford one con next year, and it sounds like so much fun, I'd love to be able to go.

I am sad to be at work, so I am cheering myself up by making a super-scientific poll!

This is a fandom LJ, but there are a few people on here that I know outside of fandom. Also, I watch a lot of TV but am not necessarily part of the fandoms of those shows, so I'm curious to know what we might have in common.

Thus, a poll:

[Poll #1783662]

My Delicious account is back from the dead, except it has amnesia. ALL my links have vanished.

I am so pissed off, I can't even. All of harrigan's hard work is gone.

I guess I'll get back to it eventually, figure out what the hell these "stacks" are. I like pancakes, but I don't see what the point of stacks are otherwise.

Delicious is also being a prissy bitch and informing me that I must not have "opted in" when I was supposed to. Hah. I did it for both my accounts, so they are full of it.

Any other bookmarking sites out there that people like? I am willing to switch over at this point, since I have to start from scratch.

Hey flist,

Anyone here know what they're talking about WRT fairies/the fae/etc? I am looking for some good reference books (or websites, that works too) that can give me more than a bare-bones overview of the various different types of small folk out there. The whole seelie/unseelie thing, everything from brownies to the hierarchies in the courts. All that stuff that I sort of know about but only enough to get myself into trouble.

Help?

Okay, flist, I know it's a weird question, but it's for SCIENCE!

Anyone out there with a ferret who'd be willing to chat with me about ferret habits/mannerisms/behaviours and the ins and outs of having a ferret as a pet?

Thanks in advance!

Dear flist, can I ask a quick favour?

I am having a completely random and trivial bout of wibbling over how my Master List of fic is organized. Specifically, I'm wondering if that post has become too big and unwieldy -even with the handy html that takes you from section to section- and if I should split it into two or something. My concern is that splitting it might actually make things worse in terms of accessibility.

So if you have half a second, would you mind taking a look and then making with the clicky in this handy-dandy poll?

Thank you!


[Poll #1726303]

Hola, flist!

Okay, I can no longer claim to be new to fandom (damn, has it really been almost a year and a half?), but there are still aspects that I find hard to define/quantify/whatever.

This has popped up lately because of a problematic fic (which I haven't read, I will hasten to point out), in which there is apparently an issue of consent. Without getting into the actual debate about posting warnings (for the record, in fandom my rule of thumb is "better safe than sorry" and "add warnings if your readers inform you that they found the material triggering"), I would like to clarify the whole notion of dub-con and non-con.

( Discussion of dub-con and non-con and all sorts of other potentially triggery stuff behind the cut. Please tread carefully, and think about your words before posting. Thanks! )