Where I Check Place and Time, Facts and Words

Tutorials? Fandom Primers? Ship Manifestos? Info Posts? How-to Guides? Writing Resources? Helpful Links?

Challenge #11

In your own space, recommend a fannish or creative resource.



I doubt I’ve got much to offer in this challenge.

I use Harry Potter Lexicon occasionally, mainly for something like how the name of Madam Puddifoot’s tea shop is spelled. I found out about the existence of HP Lexicon late, a few years after starting to write fic, and I still prefer checking canon facts in the text of the novels. There’s a lot in the Lexicon that I don’t consider part of canon, and I appreciate it how it’s mark where such details like Lupin’s middle name derive from.

I use Wikipedia for finding out facts like which archaeological discoveries were made or which albums were released in a given year.

Google is my quick way to start my search for resources about any topic – from birds in Scotland to clubs or weather in 1970s London. (I’ve now got a favourite site for the weather but it doesn’t work at the moment.)

I haven’t got a regular site for checking the exact moonrise and moonset times, but this one’s now my favourite for checking dates/days of week, moon phases and holidays:
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1978&country=9. (you can, of course, choose any year and country).

I confess that I haven’t got one trusted online dictionary. I use Wiktionary for checking the spelling and notes on usage, and in more complicated cases I usually just google the phrase with the word “meaning” (or “British” if I want to check that the phrase is used in UK) and check several resources.

I’d appreciate any advise in using these resources better or choosing better ones.

A Change – Back to My Preferred Style

I’d been writing a new short story for three weeks, slowly, not very enthusiastically, adding only a bit daily, while spending most of my fandom time on Snowflake and on new friends and their fic. And on the day before yesterday, when I’d achieved the total of 3400 words, I suddenly gave up my efforts to use a third-person voice.

I went through the text and made cheerfully the quick change of pronouns, and proceeded to write a (in my view) poignant, vivid and fluent 700-word scene (which perhaps even completes the fic). I feel the text works so much better in this way. Now it’s fascinating to make a more careful revision and consider if any other changes can benefit the story in this form.