welcome to the trash compactor

hollanov // "shy boy"

-Zell

hi! so glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for your lovely comments.

I was, ironically, procrastinating on writing my history phd dissertation while writing this fic. it's really fun to think about what a time period Feels Like in historical fiction, and all the little tangible details that make it right. I also went down so many wikipedia rabbit holes, and then had to decide when the details mattered and when to throw them out the window for my own convenience.

Work on your PhD omggggggg. (But also writing is good for the soooouuulll and you'll need that soul for your PhD, soooo... Is it REALLY procrastinating? Avoiding burnout is important. 😋)

I've been appreciating how you've been balancing the vibe of the period with the translation to a modern audience in Birdwatcher. You're not sacrificing too much, which is nice, but you're also sidestepping a lot of details I would usually fall into a research spiral over. I always get caught up on math, and literally have historical government documents about cost of living and weather archives up for my own fic. (See, the devil in my brain is like, "But what if a historian who loves this time period reads it and you write a clear day during a record-setting blizzard? 🥺" and then I do it for the historian lol.) I honestly need to learn from your example because it would probably save me a lot of time. And grief. (probably won't tho.)

I've read what you have up twice, so yes, I'd say it's been fun to read thus far.

personally the things I find really distracting are concepts intruding where they don't belong or important parts of everyday life being missing. psychology appearing before psychology was a thing, or totally ignoring religion when it should be Really Important (looking at you, Bridgerton), or forgetting about colonialism when there should be lots of colonialism happening.

but then again, there is something to be said for the happy coincidences that come up during research process, and all the little details you discover along the way. so maybe taking liberties depends on your baseline sense of what's really important in a period.