Entry tags:
The Process.
Let's talk about the arduous task of what happens to a TEF chapter before it gets posted.
At least five mornings a week I drag my sorry ass out of bed and start the water for my tea. By the time I'm done it's finished boiling, so I get a mug of breakfast tea going and let it steep while I get dressed. After a quick doctoring with milk and sugar, it joins me in my morning writing chair. I queue up Rainy Mood on my tablet (for entertainment and e-mail purposes only) while my massive TEF working file loads on my netbook (for writing and research purposes only). Then I sit there and write for anywhere from 30 min. to a full hour. I usually get at least a good paragraph's worth done. On a really good day I knock out a full page (font size 8, typeface Verdana). I close up shop and get on with the rest of my day.
I do this every day until I get a chapter done (my chapters at this point average about 60 pages). At this point I copy/paste the entire chapter's text out into a new document and bump the font size up to 10 for my betas' benefit. That .doc (as well as a .pdf copy) gets sent to my two betas (at this point, the page count generally goes up to 80-90 pages). My betas get to work reading and noting the chapter. Meanwhile, I take a week-long break to work on something else, then get started on the next chapter.
The sorts of notes I get back from![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mathkid and juxtaposie range from grammatical notes to broader notes about story or character. It would be difficult to touch on every different type of note they give me, but it includes the following:
Once my betas give me the thumbs up for posting, I then take a few mornings to go into the chapter and manually input all the formatting tags for posting to lj—in TEF, that's primarily the italicized bits. If I'm smart and planning ahead, I save out a copy for ffnet as well. And then—finally, after all this aggro—the chapter gets broken up and posted to lj. A week or two later I slap it up on ffnet.
And on, and on, and on.
Obviously, the real life wrench often gets thrown into the gears—most notably for the better part of the past two years, where work on TEF was really touch and go—but for the most part, and especially lately, I'm back on track. For those who ask, yes—I am working on TEF. I work on it every day, save for a week every 60 or so days. Two months. I take a break from TEF every two months. And even during that break, I'm still writing—just not TEF.
I do have mornings that don't go well. If time is an issue, I still open up my netbook and try to get down at least one sentence. I'm also in the terrible habit of editing as I go, but this does have its upside—if I'm having a tough time of just writing, I'll edit instead. Sometimes it's just easier to look over what I've done and do some tweaking—I may not have it in me, but at least I'm getting something worthwhile done.
Even though writing can be difficult some mornings, I try to get everything else in place to make actually sitting to write as easy as possible. I have a scheduled writing time. I cleaned out a cluttered area of my living room and designated that tiny bit of apartment as my writing space—literally, it's a chair by the window with a shelf nearby for me to rest my tea. I have an entire routine leading up to actually sitting in that chair. I pretty much use my netbook just for writing and only open up the browser if I need to research something—the 2009 calendar year (when TEF ostensibly starts, ha), ballroom dance terms, random high school shit I've forgotten, synonyms for “aggravated,” etc., etc. I never use it for surfing the internet—I don't even turn the on wireless on my netbook unless I need to look something up. I do all that to keep the river we call creativity running as smoothly as possible—I clear every possible rock out of the way so it flows a little better and faster. That doesn't stop me from hitting other rocks, of course, but at the very least I'm not stumbling over every single little fucking pebble I hit along the way.
Re: feedback from my betas, I usually take about 80% of their notes. I do push back on notes occasionally and trust them to fight back if it's something they feel strongly about. I know you guys are probably sick of hearing it, but you all have benefited immensely frommathkid's and juxtaposie's magic touch. I most definitely have. Their collective eye has had an extremely positive influence on my writing, especially from a mechanical standpoint. Anybody who has been keeping up with TEF benefits from me having been informed at an earlier stage how the pacing feels in each chapter, how it flows, how it sounds and reads, and if it makes sense.
I am a lucky person, not only because both my betas have an exceptional eye for proofing, but because I know I can trust their opinions. As betas, they never threaten my opinion as an author. They do challenge me to think more on why I do as I do in TEF and if it works from a reader's standpoint. In the cases where I do feel the need to defend what I've done and push back on a note, the mere fact that they brought it up encourages me to really think about my position and explain it, thus helping me to better understand where I'm coming from as a writer/storyteller.
That's all to say that there's a lot that goes into each chapter of TEF. A lot of readers get very demanding about the next chapter, and I know I've said it before but I'll say it again, every time—TEF is a big part of my life and my betas' lives, but it's not the only part. We are each of us adults, with full time responsibilities and relationships. My entire day cannot be centered around TEF, and my betas can't drop everything they're doing to beta a 60-90 page chapter—the quality of the feedback they give me requires a good amount of time on their part to read and digest 20,000-30,000 words at a time. I don't even know how many times they read a chapter, to be honest, but since we do multiple rounds of notes, I know it's more than once.
Most of you know (and have commented!) on how long reading a single chapter took you.mathkid andjuxtaposie read a single chapter over and over, and they're not just reading—they're doing quality control. I know several of you have done re-reads (♥!), but my betas have to re-read the same chapter over and over and keep an eye out for every little thing that's changed. I do indicate it in red and include detailed notation on what's been changed on each page, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still tens of thousands of words to read through. TEF is currently over 200,000 words long. How many hours of editing—which is still work, even if it's on something you enjoy reading—do you think has been spent on a fic of such immense length?
But I'm blabbering. The whole point of this was to try and de-mystify the process of writing TEF as much as possible for those of you who were interested. I'm immensely happy and flattered by the appreciative comments, I really am! I thank you all for bearing with the wait. I just also want to point out that this whole thing isn't an easy lay or a one night stand or even a summer fling—it's a fucking commitment and has been for a good few years. Like any relationship, writing TEF isn't this magical thing that just happens—it's work. Work that I love, but most definitely work. But I do care about it enough to keep it going, and at the very least, I want you guys to recognize that. ♥
At least five mornings a week I drag my sorry ass out of bed and start the water for my tea. By the time I'm done it's finished boiling, so I get a mug of breakfast tea going and let it steep while I get dressed. After a quick doctoring with milk and sugar, it joins me in my morning writing chair. I queue up Rainy Mood on my tablet (for entertainment and e-mail purposes only) while my massive TEF working file loads on my netbook (for writing and research purposes only). Then I sit there and write for anywhere from 30 min. to a full hour. I usually get at least a good paragraph's worth done. On a really good day I knock out a full page (font size 8, typeface Verdana). I close up shop and get on with the rest of my day.
I do this every day until I get a chapter done (my chapters at this point average about 60 pages). At this point I copy/paste the entire chapter's text out into a new document and bump the font size up to 10 for my betas' benefit. That .doc (as well as a .pdf copy) gets sent to my two betas (at this point, the page count generally goes up to 80-90 pages). My betas get to work reading and noting the chapter. Meanwhile, I take a week-long break to work on something else, then get started on the next chapter.
The sorts of notes I get back from
mathkid and juxtaposie range from grammatical notes to broader notes about story or character. It would be difficult to touch on every different type of note they give me, but it includes the following:- Catching typos and misused words
- Calling me out on run-ons or awkwardly worded sentences
- General grammatical corrections
- Flagging repetitive word usage
- Questioning character motivations (Bubbles' angry reaction to Boomer in ch5 was re-worked extensively after their feedback)
- Pointing out things that don't make sense (the Socratic dialogue in ch2 was played much straighter in my first draft; the only reason it wound up coming out so good was due to my betas saying, “Look, sbj, the thing is—it makes no sense”)
- Suggesting scenes that could be cut or condensed (an entire scene from ch8 where Bethany, the little girl from ch7a, makes a reappearance was eliminated based on their feedback)
- Etc., etc., etc.
Once my betas give me the thumbs up for posting, I then take a few mornings to go into the chapter and manually input all the formatting tags for posting to lj—in TEF, that's primarily the italicized bits. If I'm smart and planning ahead, I save out a copy for ffnet as well. And then—finally, after all this aggro—the chapter gets broken up and posted to lj. A week or two later I slap it up on ffnet.
And on, and on, and on.
Obviously, the real life wrench often gets thrown into the gears—most notably for the better part of the past two years, where work on TEF was really touch and go—but for the most part, and especially lately, I'm back on track. For those who ask, yes—I am working on TEF. I work on it every day, save for a week every 60 or so days. Two months. I take a break from TEF every two months. And even during that break, I'm still writing—just not TEF.
I do have mornings that don't go well. If time is an issue, I still open up my netbook and try to get down at least one sentence. I'm also in the terrible habit of editing as I go, but this does have its upside—if I'm having a tough time of just writing, I'll edit instead. Sometimes it's just easier to look over what I've done and do some tweaking—I may not have it in me, but at least I'm getting something worthwhile done.
Even though writing can be difficult some mornings, I try to get everything else in place to make actually sitting to write as easy as possible. I have a scheduled writing time. I cleaned out a cluttered area of my living room and designated that tiny bit of apartment as my writing space—literally, it's a chair by the window with a shelf nearby for me to rest my tea. I have an entire routine leading up to actually sitting in that chair. I pretty much use my netbook just for writing and only open up the browser if I need to research something—the 2009 calendar year (when TEF ostensibly starts, ha), ballroom dance terms, random high school shit I've forgotten, synonyms for “aggravated,” etc., etc. I never use it for surfing the internet—I don't even turn the on wireless on my netbook unless I need to look something up. I do all that to keep the river we call creativity running as smoothly as possible—I clear every possible rock out of the way so it flows a little better and faster. That doesn't stop me from hitting other rocks, of course, but at the very least I'm not stumbling over every single little fucking pebble I hit along the way.
Re: feedback from my betas, I usually take about 80% of their notes. I do push back on notes occasionally and trust them to fight back if it's something they feel strongly about. I know you guys are probably sick of hearing it, but you all have benefited immensely from
mathkid's and juxtaposie's magic touch. I most definitely have. Their collective eye has had an extremely positive influence on my writing, especially from a mechanical standpoint. Anybody who has been keeping up with TEF benefits from me having been informed at an earlier stage how the pacing feels in each chapter, how it flows, how it sounds and reads, and if it makes sense.I am a lucky person, not only because both my betas have an exceptional eye for proofing, but because I know I can trust their opinions. As betas, they never threaten my opinion as an author. They do challenge me to think more on why I do as I do in TEF and if it works from a reader's standpoint. In the cases where I do feel the need to defend what I've done and push back on a note, the mere fact that they brought it up encourages me to really think about my position and explain it, thus helping me to better understand where I'm coming from as a writer/storyteller.
That's all to say that there's a lot that goes into each chapter of TEF. A lot of readers get very demanding about the next chapter, and I know I've said it before but I'll say it again, every time—TEF is a big part of my life and my betas' lives, but it's not the only part. We are each of us adults, with full time responsibilities and relationships. My entire day cannot be centered around TEF, and my betas can't drop everything they're doing to beta a 60-90 page chapter—the quality of the feedback they give me requires a good amount of time on their part to read and digest 20,000-30,000 words at a time. I don't even know how many times they read a chapter, to be honest, but since we do multiple rounds of notes, I know it's more than once.
Most of you know (and have commented!) on how long reading a single chapter took you.
mathkid andjuxtaposie read a single chapter over and over, and they're not just reading—they're doing quality control. I know several of you have done re-reads (♥!), but my betas have to re-read the same chapter over and over and keep an eye out for every little thing that's changed. I do indicate it in red and include detailed notation on what's been changed on each page, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still tens of thousands of words to read through. TEF is currently over 200,000 words long. How many hours of editing—which is still work, even if it's on something you enjoy reading—do you think has been spent on a fic of such immense length?But I'm blabbering. The whole point of this was to try and de-mystify the process of writing TEF as much as possible for those of you who were interested. I'm immensely happy and flattered by the appreciative comments, I really am! I thank you all for bearing with the wait. I just also want to point out that this whole thing isn't an easy lay or a one night stand or even a summer fling—it's a fucking commitment and has been for a good few years. Like any relationship, writing TEF isn't this magical thing that just happens—it's work. Work that I love, but most definitely work. But I do care about it enough to keep it going, and at the very least, I want you guys to recognize that. ♥