Entry tags:
- a/n,
- a/n:tef,
- authornotes,
- ppg,
- tef
Micro-update on TEF
Ch8 is getting close. Honestly I wasn't planning on updating my lj until it was ready to post, but after a week of mornings spent revising I felt like poking in around here. Hello!
I've gone through the betas' notes (thank you, and you ♥) and have done my own pass on the entire document (formerly 89 pages, now down to 84). It's kind of fascinating - I did my first draft way back in 2009, and it's kind of interesting to see how my tastes/writing sensibilities have changed. I killed a lot of adverbs, which I've developed a serious aversion to in the past year or so thanks to Stephen King's On Writing. The other thing I took away from the book (which is very good and inspirational, and I highly recommend it) and would like to implement in my own revision workflow is trying to cut 10% from the piece.
The formula goes something like "Second draft = First draft - 10%." Like King, I'm not saying that's a recipe for success, but I think it's good to take a look at how I can kill some repetitive elements and improve the flow of the story. There are two major scenes I'm looking at cutting back on, but I'm not positive I'll make 10%. If I really work at it, I can probably make a dirty 10% (rounding up). At the moment I'm closer to 5%, which is looking like the reality. Ha, brevity is not my forte! (If I can get rid of half a page, I will consider it a success and then send it off to beta, and then celebrate by showering. Yes, that is what constitutes a viable reward for myself today.)
As far as the rest of the whole TEF business goes, well. Welly welly well. I've had spurts of awesomeness followed by spurts of flailing floppiness, and ch11a is still nowhere near ready to send to beta. I have so much still to do and tie up and add transitions into. And then once that is all over I will need to do it again with ch12. And again with ch13. And 14, and 15, and--well, you get the picture. (I'm still planning on topping out at ch17.)
I don't mean to bitch and moan about it, but one of the major problems I'm having with TEF is that I keep thinking of the end--that is, how to write it, and knot it, and tie it all up in a pretty little poetic package, and unfortunately all that thinking on the ending is waylaying me from the work that needs to be done now. I'm too busy squinting at the finish line to make any progress towards it.
Enough about my whinging! The point is I'm working on stuff, and that's good. I seem to be getting a lot of pleas to update lately, which I appreciate (thank you for caring!), but it also... befuddles me? A bit? Because there was a whole period of time where no update happened for, like, a year, and in the two months that have passed since the last chapter got posted I've gotten more messages begging for TEF to be continued than I usually do. Um. If you are reading this, I appreciate your concern! If you have managed to google your way here (since ff.net appears to have given up entirely on including links in their profile coding, which is asinine), a brief perusal of my entries here should hopefully give enough indication that I have no plans to discontinue More Than Human! Um, please also understand that I am an adult who has a full time job and rent and taxes to pay (OH SHIT TAXES THAT'S RIGHT) and various other rl sundries going on that I also need to take care of. I am glad you are enjoying the fic, but please be patient. I am working as best I can on getting it out! (Also, I daresay some of you are getting a little spoiled. My chapters average 60 pages of text! On a good day I'm a pretty fast writer, but even then I don't write 60-page chapters that fast. Please exercise some restraint and patience before you beg me to update! TEF is very important to me to do as "right" as possible; it is not something I want to rush.)
I can recommend you other authors to check out in the meantime, like Somewei and Alicorn and Quillbender, as well as the drabblework being done over at![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ppg_hub_drabble by a plethora of very talented writers. You should check those out and see if anything strikes your fancy. (And enter the monthly contest! Plug, plug, plug.)
Have I procrastinated further editing on TEF successfully yet? Oh geez, it's been nearly an hour. Survey says: YES.
I've gone through the betas' notes (thank you, and you ♥) and have done my own pass on the entire document (formerly 89 pages, now down to 84). It's kind of fascinating - I did my first draft way back in 2009, and it's kind of interesting to see how my tastes/writing sensibilities have changed. I killed a lot of adverbs, which I've developed a serious aversion to in the past year or so thanks to Stephen King's On Writing. The other thing I took away from the book (which is very good and inspirational, and I highly recommend it) and would like to implement in my own revision workflow is trying to cut 10% from the piece.
The formula goes something like "Second draft = First draft - 10%." Like King, I'm not saying that's a recipe for success, but I think it's good to take a look at how I can kill some repetitive elements and improve the flow of the story. There are two major scenes I'm looking at cutting back on, but I'm not positive I'll make 10%. If I really work at it, I can probably make a dirty 10% (rounding up). At the moment I'm closer to 5%, which is looking like the reality. Ha, brevity is not my forte! (If I can get rid of half a page, I will consider it a success and then send it off to beta, and then celebrate by showering. Yes, that is what constitutes a viable reward for myself today.)
As far as the rest of the whole TEF business goes, well. Welly welly well. I've had spurts of awesomeness followed by spurts of flailing floppiness, and ch11a is still nowhere near ready to send to beta. I have so much still to do and tie up and add transitions into. And then once that is all over I will need to do it again with ch12. And again with ch13. And 14, and 15, and--well, you get the picture. (I'm still planning on topping out at ch17.)
I don't mean to bitch and moan about it, but one of the major problems I'm having with TEF is that I keep thinking of the end--that is, how to write it, and knot it, and tie it all up in a pretty little poetic package, and unfortunately all that thinking on the ending is waylaying me from the work that needs to be done now. I'm too busy squinting at the finish line to make any progress towards it.
Enough about my whinging! The point is I'm working on stuff, and that's good. I seem to be getting a lot of pleas to update lately, which I appreciate (thank you for caring!), but it also... befuddles me? A bit? Because there was a whole period of time where no update happened for, like, a year, and in the two months that have passed since the last chapter got posted I've gotten more messages begging for TEF to be continued than I usually do. Um. If you are reading this, I appreciate your concern! If you have managed to google your way here (since ff.net appears to have given up entirely on including links in their profile coding, which is asinine), a brief perusal of my entries here should hopefully give enough indication that I have no plans to discontinue More Than Human! Um, please also understand that I am an adult who has a full time job and rent and taxes to pay (OH SHIT TAXES THAT'S RIGHT) and various other rl sundries going on that I also need to take care of. I am glad you are enjoying the fic, but please be patient. I am working as best I can on getting it out! (Also, I daresay some of you are getting a little spoiled. My chapters average 60 pages of text! On a good day I'm a pretty fast writer, but even then I don't write 60-page chapters that fast. Please exercise some restraint and patience before you beg me to update! TEF is very important to me to do as "right" as possible; it is not something I want to rush.)
I can recommend you other authors to check out in the meantime, like Somewei and Alicorn and Quillbender, as well as the drabblework being done over at
ppg_hub_drabble by a plethora of very talented writers. You should check those out and see if anything strikes your fancy. (And enter the monthly contest! Plug, plug, plug.)Have I procrastinated further editing on TEF successfully yet? Oh geez, it's been nearly an hour. Survey says: YES.