Hey, guys. I know I don't post on here as much as I should, but I was just taking a break from world-building for the Heads-Verse so I thought I would share something with you all while I was thinking of it.
So, like the title says, details matter. Sometimes I get compliments on how much people love my AUs and the worlds and lives I make for the characters. (And I love every one of them, thank you for the comments. Love you, readers!)
I know my style/method may not be for everyone, but I thought I would give you a glimpse into the sort of research/effort I put into my stories to make them feel more plausible and realistic, like an actual living world for the characters.
I am writing a bridge piece to get us from Sean's birthday to the Hispanic Heritage month. So far, the research I've done for this chapter is:
Academic calendars, to make sure the public school system and University of Washington school years begin at an appropriate time.
Academic sports calendars, to make sure I get the school sports seasons correct.
School supply lists to make sure the characters buy the right things in a shopping scene.
Biometric data charts to make sure the characters grow at a plausible rate and reach a plausible height/weight for their ages.
Information on the Hispanic Heritage month, so I can have it set a realistic time and location, and include plausible events.
With all of that information, I'm still not done. For example, I use that (plus a solid dose of imagination) to construct class schedules for all of the main characters. Why go through all of that? Because I want consistency. When I write a scene with two characters during a class, I want to make sure that the time/class match up every time. I don't want Harry and Daniel to share a class one time and not be in the same class the next time. I don't want the boys to have lunch after math in one chapter and then have lunch before math in the next installment. So I make schedules to track when and where every character should be.
It's a lot of work, but I think of it like the scaffolding that the world is built on; the skeleton that supports the weight of the AU. The growing lore of an ongoing AU gets heavy. Without that support to hold it up, the world can collapse under its own weight.
Errors still happen, of course, because I'm human, and only one guy trying to write and edit a story that would have a whole team dedicated to it in a professional setting, but such is the nature of fan fiction.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my long-winded brag/ramble. I just wanted to give my readers a glimpse behind the curtain, so to speak. I hope you all enjoyed this glance into what the writing process looks like for me.