(no subject)

[person4]

Working on my fic, which I must get right back to since I slacked off yesterday and didn't meet word count. I just had to stop for a second and say how very amused I am with Harry's complete stupidity when it comes to the price of muggle clothing, since he's never gone clothes shopping before. He's currently in Gringotts, asking for 50 galleons to be exchanged into pounds since he can't remember the exact exchange rate other then there're a few pounds in a galleon and figures that since that'll definitely come to over 100 pounds (over two hundred-fifty actually) it'll be fine. Then he thinks that he's probably getting way to much, since his school robes for the full year only come to a little more then a galleon.

Of course, I have no idea how much a summers worth of clothes would be over there either, but as this is the Age of the Interweb all I need to do is do a quick search for an online shop whose major branch is in London and whose prices seem fairly cheap then add the cheapest things I can find that he needs to the shopping cart and see how much it comes out to.

I never feel like I have quite a good hold on Harry's personality, for all that I almost always write from his POV in this fandom. But this is one thing that I think really does feel right for him, because how the hell would he know how much clothing costs when he's only ever worn castoffs? And he's going to feel incredibly stupid and embarassed when he gets up to the cash register to ring up his purchases and finds that even though he has more money then he's ever handled in his life (because, of course, wizarding money never really feels like real money, it's like a pretend currency or toy coins that just happens to be taken by some people) and he made sure that everything he picked up was cheap he still doesn't have enough money on hand to buy what he thinks he needs to get through the entire summer.

And it's nice, because this chapter (which is going on longer then it probably should, but I don't want to drag on all the shopping and wandering around the Alley on his first day for more then one chapter) was never supposed to exist to begin with. I just realised when Harry was going to grab some clothes in the last chapter that I'd forgotten to have him pack any in the first one. And, since it's the very beginning of June, he can't just stick to the clothes he had on and two robes for the rest of the summer and needed to go shopping.

Ok, ok, I'll get back to work now. Especially since I just wrote almost five hundred words which, if they'd been in the actual fic, would have just about gotten me back on schedule.

Comments

[lappish.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about slacking off. When I write, I usually write only a few words and then reread the whole story to see how it fits in. I never get to far with that method - my longest story is 6 pages.
I find it hard to get into a personality of a character too, especially an undeveloped character. I'll start out all right, but then I lose the smooth flow and the personality changes. *sigh* It's so tough to write and such a hassle. That's why I prefer drawing.

Anyway, enough with my rambling. Good luck with your fic!

[neomeruru.livejournal.com]

Shopping, in Scotland at least, is expensive. It's about $2.50CDN for only one Scottish pound. The numbers are the same, say 50 quid for a decent pair of jeans, but then you factor in exactly how much a pound is worth and it can get pretty staggering.

Though, I'm sure the Isles have their fair share of thrift stores, so you never know.

[haku-kaen.livejournal.com]

So I found. He's not even going after anything that's decent, just whatever's cheap, and it still added up to a lot. I was rather shocked when I found out how much it came to in US dollars, and then knew I just had to have Harry come up really short of cash. Luckily he's with someone who can bail him out instead of being with the Weasleys or on his own or something.