Well, obviously I've been distracted this past week, and with a major holiday / long weekend coming up here in the U.S., many of us will be distracted for the next few days, so I'm declaring today's challenge a "work on your WIP" day (or weekend if we don't get back here until Monday).

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! (Doesn't matter where you are or if you celebrate this holiday. I hope you have a great day no matter what!)

Today is a research challenge! Because research (and planning and editing and other activities) is as much a part of writing as getting words down on paper.

Think about something you're working on or something you've recently worked on and choose a topic from it, any topic, even one you're already familiar with. For example, shoes. You know what shoes are. Maybe you're not mentioning the characters' shoes in your work, but they are wearing them, right? They're something in your work, even if you don't actually mention them.

Now, go read about your topic and learn at least one thing new. It can be something unrelated to your work (such as, the word "pumps" in the U.S. refers to women's closed-toe heeled shoes with the top part of the foot uncovered, but in England refers to the canvas sneakers that school kids wear in gym class, even though those shoes are not designed for athletic use). Or it could be something directly related to your fandom (such as, the Tenth Doctor did wear "sandshoes" (another word for "pumps"), which Eleven mocked him for, but the Fifth Doctor did not, as his ankle-high white shoes were leather, not canvas).

Lastly, write a sentence or two that demonstrates this new knowledge. It doesn't have to something you'll include in your work. It's only about using the knowledge for a moment. Example:

Donna glanced at his feet. "You know, for all the running you do, I'd think you'd choose shoes actually built for it."

Write a couple of paragraphs describing rain. How rainy it is is up to you; it can be a drizzle or a hurricane. How it's being viewed or sensed is up to you; it could be a scene from a window, or the POV character could be standing in it getting drenched.

However, don't include any character actions that don't involve the rain, so no sipping coffee, no thinking about things, and especially no dialogue. Just describe the rain, either how the POV character is experiencing it or how the narrator is describing it (or both).