#WritersCoffeeClub 20: Name something unexpected you had to learn for a work.

Whichever genre you try to write has rules—both explicit and unstated.

And you need to be well-read in a genre before you go near it, lest your revolutionary genre-redefining magnum opus turns out to be a fool's rakedance.

No genre of fiction is simple or easy to write—period.

the simpsons rake GIF
the simpsons rake GIF
#WritersCoffeeClub Footnote unexpectedness: cramming in *far* too much information about stage coach travel on the Great North Road, circa 1650-1820, including inns, timetables, how you paid (and who—passengers tipped the guards after each stage, for example, b/c they'd go back and forth), and cost. 200 miles by stage coach in England in 1810 cost about the equivalent of an intercontinental flight today; business class for an indoor seat, economy equivalent to riding on the carriage roof!
@bellinghman @GinevraCat

Yep! The coaches moved at 8mph but had to stop every couple of hours to change teams (and guards and drivers). And kept moving through the night.

Of course, any significant rainfall turned all but the best stretches of surviving Roman roads into a quagmire that stopped traffic for days at a time.

(Similarly to sailing across the Atlantic: the record crossing was 10 days, but the worst case—before steam—was something like 6 months.)

@bellinghman @GinevraCat Of course, if you spent 60 hours in a stagecoach, with 15 minute breaks every two hours (and occasionally having to get out and push, on steep hills)—never mind sitting on top in all weather!—you'd be feeling pretty jet-lagged by the time you got to the other end of the Great North Road.

So in that respect, not much difference from flying long-haul right around the world—twice.

1+ more replies (not shown)