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ljwritesBeen swamped for a while. Still am, though it's starting to settle down. I've still been writing and reviewing, including turning over new chapters for Shadow of the Dragon King and Everybody Loves Ty Lee to my lovely beta ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amyraine whom I also beta for. (So I guess we're mutual betas?) She beta-read the ELTL chapter really quickly and well, and it should be ready for posting after editing.
It seems to me, after reading Amy's comments, that everyone who writes should have a beta. Everyone. It helps so tremendously to have someone else read over your writing and point out the annoying quirks and blind spots you never even realized you had, particularly when that someone is an excellent writer herself. The input is so valuable, I have a hard time expressing the extent of it. (Probably because I should be in bed by now.)
The first story of Amy's that I've wreaked beta shenanigans on is Consequence, Conscience, Choice. The first chapter is up, with the second having gone through its second beta-reading. It's good, and I'd like to think it's become even better after my spit-shining here and there. Seriously, check it out.
When I asked Amy if she would be needing the Dragon King outline to beta-read, she said it would help. Oh snap! I'd kind of hoped she would say no, because the second part of that outline was basically a few scant sentences and lots of big holes that needed filling. That gave me the impetus to work on the outline, something I've procrastinated on for way too long, and I've completed the thing in its eighteen-page, 7600+ word glory. That's about the length of an average Dragon King chapter, which I guess means... nothing?
Anyway I'm glad Amy said she wanted the outline, because having the contours of the story in hand gives me confidence to continue with the project and the clarity to see where I'm going--not only with the story as a whole, but with each story element and character. It doesn't eliminate uncertainty, obviously, because the fully-outlined first part of the story was full of surprises. Sometimes the elements in the outline wouldn't work out in the writing, because it was implausible or the character just wouldn't go there. Sometimes I would come up with much better ideas while I wrote. Sometimes the story just wrote itself and ran fast and hard from my plans. Often chapters I never outlined would turn out to be necessary, blowing up what was an eleven- or twelve- chapter outline to a twenty-chapter monstrosity.
So I completely expect this outline to become outdated once I start writing. Which is fine, because I love to be surprised by the process of writing. But it still helps to have a plan in mind because it tells me what I need to be writing next and keeps the story moving forward. And if a portion of the outline turns out to be unworkable, at least I know what doesn't work, which is valuable information in figuring out what does work. When I ask myself "why doesn't this work?" the question usually gets me somewhere. And sometimes outlines really need to change anyway; in the older versions Khoujin was named Koshan or Khosan (I've seen both) and Sa Ye's name was spelled Saë. I mean, what was I thinking?
Another advantage to the outline is that it gets me excited all over again about the project. As I wrote in the Featured Fic post ofamanda_violet 's stories, a novel is an exercise in delayed gratification. Even if you start with the good stuff, to get to the really big good stuff you need significant buildup--of characters, plot, and atmosphere. The buildup isn't nearly as exciting as the stuff that's been pushed down the road, but it's necessary. And it's very easy to get tired of putting off pleasure, especially if you're the writer. Reminding myself of the good stuff to come, I got pumped once again to finish this thing.
Dragon King is, in some ways, the kind of thing I want to do with the rest of my life. I am fascinated by questions of justice and society, and how we interact with each other to try and live together. That's what my academic life is about, but I also feel that academic writings alone don't fully explore these issues; sometimes they have to be felt, not analyzed. Dragon King is me dipping my toe in the water, very aware of the story's many flaws and limits. Some are practical, coming from its nature as a derivative work, but even more than that I'm conscious of the lopsided good-against-evil framework of the story, which is a limitation I want to transcend eventually, in other stories. None of that, however, takes away from how much I care about this story, and I think it's tremendous practice in addition to being a great journey on its own. Finishing the outline was a great reminder of that.
amyraine whom I also beta for. (So I guess we're mutual betas?) She beta-read the ELTL chapter really quickly and well, and it should be ready for posting after editing.It seems to me, after reading Amy's comments, that everyone who writes should have a beta. Everyone. It helps so tremendously to have someone else read over your writing and point out the annoying quirks and blind spots you never even realized you had, particularly when that someone is an excellent writer herself. The input is so valuable, I have a hard time expressing the extent of it. (Probably because I should be in bed by now.)
The first story of Amy's that I've wreaked beta shenanigans on is Consequence, Conscience, Choice. The first chapter is up, with the second having gone through its second beta-reading. It's good, and I'd like to think it's become even better after my spit-shining here and there. Seriously, check it out.
When I asked Amy if she would be needing the Dragon King outline to beta-read, she said it would help. Oh snap! I'd kind of hoped she would say no, because the second part of that outline was basically a few scant sentences and lots of big holes that needed filling. That gave me the impetus to work on the outline, something I've procrastinated on for way too long, and I've completed the thing in its eighteen-page, 7600+ word glory. That's about the length of an average Dragon King chapter, which I guess means... nothing?
Anyway I'm glad Amy said she wanted the outline, because having the contours of the story in hand gives me confidence to continue with the project and the clarity to see where I'm going--not only with the story as a whole, but with each story element and character. It doesn't eliminate uncertainty, obviously, because the fully-outlined first part of the story was full of surprises. Sometimes the elements in the outline wouldn't work out in the writing, because it was implausible or the character just wouldn't go there. Sometimes I would come up with much better ideas while I wrote. Sometimes the story just wrote itself and ran fast and hard from my plans. Often chapters I never outlined would turn out to be necessary, blowing up what was an eleven- or twelve- chapter outline to a twenty-chapter monstrosity.
So I completely expect this outline to become outdated once I start writing. Which is fine, because I love to be surprised by the process of writing. But it still helps to have a plan in mind because it tells me what I need to be writing next and keeps the story moving forward. And if a portion of the outline turns out to be unworkable, at least I know what doesn't work, which is valuable information in figuring out what does work. When I ask myself "why doesn't this work?" the question usually gets me somewhere. And sometimes outlines really need to change anyway; in the older versions Khoujin was named Koshan or Khosan (I've seen both) and Sa Ye's name was spelled Saë. I mean, what was I thinking?
Another advantage to the outline is that it gets me excited all over again about the project. As I wrote in the Featured Fic post of
amanda_violet 's stories, a novel is an exercise in delayed gratification. Even if you start with the good stuff, to get to the really big good stuff you need significant buildup--of characters, plot, and atmosphere. The buildup isn't nearly as exciting as the stuff that's been pushed down the road, but it's necessary. And it's very easy to get tired of putting off pleasure, especially if you're the writer. Reminding myself of the good stuff to come, I got pumped once again to finish this thing.Dragon King is, in some ways, the kind of thing I want to do with the rest of my life. I am fascinated by questions of justice and society, and how we interact with each other to try and live together. That's what my academic life is about, but I also feel that academic writings alone don't fully explore these issues; sometimes they have to be felt, not analyzed. Dragon King is me dipping my toe in the water, very aware of the story's many flaws and limits. Some are practical, coming from its nature as a derivative work, but even more than that I'm conscious of the lopsided good-against-evil framework of the story, which is a limitation I want to transcend eventually, in other stories. None of that, however, takes away from how much I care about this story, and I think it's tremendous practice in addition to being a great journey on its own. Finishing the outline was a great reminder of that.
