notes on getting ambushed in a dark alley at knifepoint by a demented plot bunny

[edenfalling]

How I know I have gone off the deep(er) end:

I have just spent more time researching the US military (army application process [so complicated! how anyone has the time to get in is beyond me], layout and organization of Fort Meade [argh, don't even ask], Arlington funerals [read this if you want to feel patriotic and teary-eyed], whether Arlington has a Metro stop [yes], standard-issue army pistol models [Beretta M9, currently, but that may soon change!], etc.) for a freaking GI Joe fic than I usually spend researching anything for any story. *headdesk*

Okay, bed now.

(4,300 words, incidentally. What on earth am I doing???)

Comments

[edenfalling]

I am easily susceptible to patriotic tugging at the heartstrings -- I get teary reading the quotes in my passport, for crying out loud. So of course I got sniffly reading about the Arlington ladies. *wry*

I am sure the research will show through in the implicit structure of the story, even if it's never made explicit in the text! It's like, oh, knowing that in New Jersey you don't say how many miles any trip will be; you say how long the drive will take. Or that you can't use pennies in a vending machine. Basic knowledge about how the world works, only I don't have that kind of familiarity with the military and am thus forced to research it, so I can fake the background assumptions. :-)