So much this. I'm 64,000 words into a WIP staring [MC], her [Enemy] (who's more a frenemy) and secondary characters like [BFF]. 😅 Some day they will all have names! I've never gone this long without stopping to name everyone.

Total win. 😁 I've changed fonts for different drafts before. Helps shift the perception of it just that little bit to make it fresh again.

Was it Equal Exchange they talked about? They advertise "Sustainably grown by small farmer co-ops" but I haven't done a deep dive on how successful they are at living up to their stated ideals.

I'm a huge fan of square brackets. "As they passed [town from ch3]...". Some I leave for the next draft. Others are gifts to future-me for days I want to engage with the book, but can't make drafting happen (miserable headache or whatever). Run a Search for "[" to find a bite-sized problem.

I once got very lucky reaching the department chair in a situation involving an archaeological artifact that had gone missing after a faculty member's death. He didn't know where it was either, but knew exactly what I was talking about and sent me color photos. Good luck in your own mystery!

The Institute of East Asian Studies has a faculty page with emails if you click through. It's interdisciplinary, so if you had a guess who might be closest to the right subset? ieas.berkeley.edu/centers/cent...ealc.berkeley.edu/people/liu-li with a Chinese language specialty?

Having fun finding my way around here, and connecting with people after another great (virtual) @siwc.bsky.social. Now to find some room in my brain after a great conference weekend to start watching recorded sessions and pack more in. 😁