THERE’S MORE

😄😂😁 @miranova23

I need to understand the scale a pine needle would be at compared to various ant species. Needed both the dimension of the pine needle and the sizes of said ant species to make comparisons. It's easy to understand how a pine needle would look from the POV of, say, a mouse. But at the tiny dimensions of ants, minute (to us) measurement differences would result in drastic changes to how big they perceived a pine needle compared to their size. Ants vary widely in size, too; I needed to verify what range of experiences would exist from their POVs for what pine needles would look like. Yay!

Exactly, what ant!! To your average Camponotus they'd be branches to trudge over, but Monomorium? That's a whole jungle of infinite crossing bridges and paths as wide as they are long!

What if, what if an Ant Nerd were to witness your inaccuracies? Your flippancy to your craft! There would surely be no forgiveness.

(i once went down an hours-long rabbithole to figure out what kind of chicken breeds existed in the early 1600s for a fanfic scene)(all of the research for which culminated in me calling them "little chickens" in one(1) line)(not at all worth it. funny tho)

The icing on the cake is I'm inventing a fictional ant species. I have more leeway! It doesn't matter! I can.... decide.... their proportion to the pine needles. Instead I spent hours tonight rese--- [cuts off before I go into further idiocy that does not matter]

(I feel you. One time I got stuck on, then abandoned, a Beethoven historical fiction. spent weeks on this issue. because I couldn't find accurate, detailed information about furniture to the time period in the region he lived in. It was just for a single paragraph description. I could've left it out.)

(Will say, I respect you for the chicken line)

I love you guys for your dedication.

I am the opposite. I have researched nothing. I will not be researching anything until I am done writing, because I have this bad habit of abandoning my stories because it's actually mentally exhausting to do.

Hear me out fellow writers: If you are like me and researching discourages you, just write something so that you can keep going. You can come back to correct it later. Add a little [Fact Check] on there so you can Ctrl+F it later.

Instructions unclear. My ants now have multiple dynastic eras, a fully-developed history of development of various weapons, and an interdependent economy with termites and bees inspired by research from Second Intermediate Period and New Kingdom Egypt and the Ancient Near East.

You're right though and it's good writing advice for anyone who gets caught up into things or exhausted by particulars. Some people write with vibes, whimsy, and no research and I love the result of it (that's how I used to write in childhood, and lo and behold, got stuck less); others (like me now) are compulsive worldbuilders first and writers second; but getting stuck is getting stuck and there are easy ways around it. I keep starting projects with the initiative of "don't research, just write" to return to my old whimsy and productivity and then get pulled into insane bullshit again. But sometimes the research doesn't matter... and writers just need to write. Even in a person never goes back later, I think that's okay - think of how many properties we desperately love that cast aside all notions of reality, and we love the imagination of it. Sometimes research is hella cool. Other times it's a nice reassurance. Other times it's a barricade to the creativity you could be running with instead.

TLDR I think you're smart for employing your tactic. Best of luck with your writing and projects!!!

@iridescent-sunshine <333 ^.^ it's good advice indeed!

And ah ty and

N-n-n-noooooo the ant culture definitely... isn't... anything that happened <.<

[sweats]

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The only thing I have successfully avoided doing is a conlang this time. I'm trying so hard to not do a conlang. I'm trying so hard. It's my biggest pitfall. Conlangs every time. I've resisted so far. Wish me luck.

Cats Copy. Hence the phrase copy cat. And this cat is clearly fond of this dog as a family member, and just now realized by observing:

"OH WAIT Human is making biscuits on this dog brother and it HELPS with his pain??? Hey I can do that!! I can do that too! Look! Biscuits!!"

Veterinarian at the next follow up: "Dog is looking really good! But I'm concerned - with this kind of progress, it looks like Dog is getting HOURS of massage every day. If you work yourself into a repetitive motion injury, you won't be able to keep up with Dog's home physical therapy, and, you know, you'll be hurt, too."

Human: "I give Dog a massage for about 30 minutes a day. The rest is all Cat."