What I should actually lead with:
Sure, SILVER CIRCLE is coming along fine and Part II should be ready to send to the earliest readers very soon. Really. Tomorrow, maybe.
What I have been doing:
You know, when I whap into a bolded sentence at the top or bottom of a chapter that says, “Add a conversation about whatever” or “Refer to this thing” then I have to pause and do that. Argh.
Also, I got so confused trying to make sure I knew when each chapter was happening that I added bold-faced tags at the top of every chapter. These tags say Early Morning of the Seventeenth or Late Afternoon of the Eighteenth or whatever. This is SO HELPFUL, even though there are time cues worked into the beginning of most chapters. I doubt readers will really need tags like that, but when I’m trying to make sure everything happens in order, this has been just crucial.
Quick, guess how many minutes it took to work out all those tags? Right, quite a few. Aaargh.
The whole of Part I takes place during one day and part of another, by the way. Part II boldly breaks new ground by taking place in, get this, two and a half days. This is SUCH a fast-paced story. Though there are occasional restful chapters. Just not very many.
Also, I moved a chapter to Part III, thought YAY, LESS TO DO RIGHT NOW, then realized that wouldn’t work and moved it back into Part II — but earlier, so I had to re-do the timing of that chapter. Aaaaargh.
What I will do next:
Finish primary revision of Part II, obviously. And then —
What? What should I prioritize after I send Part II to readers?
A) Secondary revision of Part I and make a proofing copy for my mother.
B) For crying out loud, read through the whole dratted Griffin Mage trilogy like I keep meaning to do and haven’t done yet. The first two book covers are finished! I have to get this done so I can make the individual book files and tell the artist how many pages per paperback!
C) Finish proofreading and loading the updated version of all the Black Dog books. (I’m on Shadow Twin.)
D) Oh, look, I totally lost track of the “Midwinter” novella I’ve started. Last newsletter didn’t have an installment of this story! Aargh! Would readers be okay with several more chapters of Silver Circle Part II or do I need to get the third piece of “Midwinter” written before the end of the month?
AND THIS IS WHY THE FANFIC POST IS DRIVING ME MAD. I literally do not have time to read a 76,000-word Vorkosigan fic with a strong loyalty theme and this is killing me!
Well, such is life, I suppose, but a LOT of those fics look really neat. I’m really happy I did that post because SOMEDAY IN THE DISTANT FUTURE I will enjoy reading those very much.
Please Feel Free to Share:
Ahahah I’m catching up from travel, and knew EXACTLY which story you meant by “76,000-word Vorkosigan fic with a strong loyalty theme.” (I checked to make sure I was right, but I’d have been absolutely shocked if I’d been wrong. And I will be trawling that post for the recommendations and no doubt posting some myself…)
So how much do I love that story? I hang out in a corner of fandom that likes to typeset, print, and hand-bind fic – a significant investment of time, skill, and money – and I have a lovely typeset of it that someone made for me in an exchange, in the style of the classic Baen Vorkosigan editions. (..I have not bound it yet, I am busy and distractible, but it is a treasure and a delight.)
(To field the most common misconceptions-this is done within the fandom gift economy, not ever for profit, and it’s considered appropriate to get the author’s permission before showing off a book in public. A lot of binders will offer a copy of the finished typset or a bound copy to the author as well, if they can afford the time, materials, and postage costs.)
For crying out loud, Allison, shut up. I don’t want to hear paeons about this fic until I have time to actually READ IT MYSELF.
[Kidding. Mostly.]
My brother gave me bound copies of a couple of Baroness Orczy’s other books — I think it’s a great idea to give bound copies of great fics.
I use square brackets because I find them easier to search for. . . .
It’s true [ ] don’t require you to go to Advanced Find and search for any text that’s bolded, but somehow bold doesn’t disturb my eye as much in a rough draft, before I get to the point where I’m actually dealing with all the bolded stuff.
My preference is for the Midwinter story but that’s only because Silver Circle – I’m sorry!!! – is the series of yours that is simply Not For Me. I tried #1 when it was free – I don’t like the “Supernatural” genre as a rule, but it was Yours so I thought it was worth giving it a go anyway just in case it was the exception – and it was a complete Book-to-Reader taste mismatch, so unfortunately pretty much as expected. Oh well. I have exceptions to “I don’t like non-fantasy Romance” and “I don’t like Horror”, so maybe somebody someday will write the exception to “I don’t like Supernatural”.
However, I’m easy. As long as the Midwinter story is completed *sometime*, I will be happy.
Everybody’s got a favorite, almost everyone dislikes something or other, all of that is perfectly fine and expected!
Everything will get done eventually. I really, honestly should be sending Part II out tomorrow morning and then I will most likely do the revision for Part I and THEN I will PROBABLY do the next section of “Midwinter.” Which should be the part that leads into the really fun part, though we’ll see. I’m listening to the second DL audiobook chapters now as the narrator completes them, which is GREAT because that will put me back in that world and make it easier to pick up “Midwinter.”