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Doing research for what was supposed to be some quick-and-dirty flashfic: Business as usual, then.

Turns out, cheval mirrors were invented in the 18th century. Perfect.

Not even going to lie, one thing I love about my favourite pairing is the sheer variety of time periods to choose from. Sure, I could do some ambiguously modern stuff, but why not set it in the late 1700s?

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From:

slashmarks

I have been known to get distracted during sex scenes and wander away into describing period furniture! So, hah, same.

From:

yuuago

YES!! It's like, okay, this is just supposed to be PWP, but apparently it's Really Vital that I know whether this particular bit of decor existed at the time.... Feels kind of ridiculous but man, is it fun.

From:

slashmarks

Last night I spent a half hour right before bed looking up fifties undergarments in great detail (like, fabric availability) for what was less porn than black comedy about American intervention in Iran in Hetalia fic format. Sleep is for the dead! And people without writing to do!

Although, honestly, if you mess up twentieth century clothing someone WILL complain so that might have been reasonable.

From:

cittasette

Ah, yes, the classic black hole of research... sometimes just for a single sentence.

I recently wanted to just do a fluffy freewrite, but found myself on a page describing the shapes and sizes of gas lamps in America. Oops.

From:

yuuago

The worst is when you do all that fiddly research and end up deleting the single sentence that it required, hah!

From:

allekha

Researching things for even throw-away lines is one of the most fun parts of writing. Surely someone will notice if this character is eating food that wasn't available for another century (I mean, I've noticed things like that - no sweet potatoes for Heian aristocrats!) or if this skating layout doesn't make sense.

From:

yuuago

Yessss. Sometimes it seems so fussy and nitpicky, but... there's always going to be that ONE PERSON who will notice if a certain thing isn't right. Especially if the entire fic hinges on that detail. ;p

From:

straightforwardly

I feel this so much right now. I just finished up a 500 word ficlet that would have taken much less time had I not stopped so many times to research something — most of which I didn't even use in the end!