I still have a couple wrinkles to iron out in the plot of Fox and Hounds (don't like the title, but haven't found a pithy fox quote that fits England.) Research might help, so I'm starting a new book on the so-called British Resistance Organization. I also watched an episode of Dad's Army. And the complete two hours of ITV's Christmas Panto Cinderella, with the usual who's who cast of British celebrities.
Thing is, every other page of the stuff I'm reading now has some pithy quote. Just this morning, in an article on St. Pancras, a quote from Kenneth Clark on the gothic revival; “...is that it produced so little on which our eyes can rest without pain.”
And that was a mild one. The tidbits are bad enough...the man who may have inspired the Napoleon of Crime is buried at Highgate, where I've already been advised to visit and intend to set a scene if I can. That's also a discovery of the morning.
Heck, even a mention of the Cybermen from Doctor Who can't resist describing them as "Quippothic parodies of humanity." No, that's not quotable (although it is pithy), but it does underline the delight in language of the writers I'm reading now.
I probably should have organized my research folders already. There's this gray zone when you haven't quite decided if something going to be in the book but you are already discovering details you will want if it is. Thing is, no matter how you attack it, it bulks up too quickly. Even without the machete edit I'm doing now, you have ten things in the notes for every one that gets into the text...but then you also, as the actual evolving text reveals new needs, have ten new things to look up or at least re-look up for every one that gets safely transferred from your notes.
It is not an exact science.
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