dragonlady7

OK, this is me Officially Beginning Revisions on the Vikings (NaNo 2004) Novel. The entire novel's alpha draft is posted on my writing journal,

treigylgweith, beginning here (comment to be friended so you can read that journal). The first three chapters have been rewritten and posted there in beta format. But nobody's commented on them, and I've realized it's kind of a high entry price, to make people go friend an entirely separate secondary journal. So, I'm going to start posting beta chapters (i.e., have undergone one rewrite) here instead.
The first chapter, I am posting publicly. That's so everyone who's interested can read it.
After that, I am going to friends-protect the entries. I might filter which friends can see the entries, just in case they begin to take up too much space, but I might not; they'll be behind cuts. I am also going to make a category in 'memories' and put the relevant entries in them, so you can read them at any time and not miss any.

The novel is, in its current form, something under twenty chapters long. The chapters vary in length from about 2,000 to 5,000 words in length; I am trying to keep them consistent, and under 5k, but structure has never been my strong point.

I plan to post, before every chapter, a set of questions I would love to have answered, showing my concerns with each section. Readers are encouraged to offer any other comments as well. I will try to point out any known issues with the story section, to save you exhaustively annotating what I already know is screwy, but I hope to have edited out any such things as this is, after all, a public beta.

I think I won't post a synopsis here. Some of you know what's going to happen, others don't; the book's intended audience won't get a synopsis, so you don't either. If I'm clever, though, I'll post a jacket blurb. (Except that the blurbs on book jackets are almost always written by apparent chimpanzees who have never read a novel, much less the one they're ostensibly summing up.)

The reasoning behind all this is that I can't get the motivation to finish revising this novel unless someone reads it. I had a few people express interest during November, but only one person who read the whole thing, and she had no comments to offer besides a general sentiment that it was good. Which was nice, but hasn't succeeded in motivating me.

I'm hoping I can post this in small enough chunks that it's manageable for people to read. I don't need exhaustive annotations, or aggressive typo patrols (though either is welcome); you don't have to promise to comment on things, you don't have to read it all. I'm just hoping that I can get enough... I don't know, attention or an audience or enough people who will notice that it will inspire the necessary shame in me to keep up regularly with it.

I'm planning on adopting a regular posting schedule, probably once per week. Ummm... Mondays at noon. Why not? I have the first three chapters all ready to go, so hopefully this'll give me the necessary cushion to get to work on the next ones. If the schedule doesn't suit the reader, that's where the memories come in: I'll link to the memories category, and it'll be easy for the reader to find the relevant entries in case he or she misses any because the schedule's not a good day for him or her.

*closes eyes, clicks 'update'* Here we go. I'm starting my public beta.