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dragonlady7So. Part of the reason fanfic has been so good for my writing output is the posting of it, which serves a really important dual purpose for me: sure, 1) it gets me attention, which is lovely, and gets people to say nice things to me, and more importantly to talk about the story with me which is all I want in my heart of hearts. But really, the important thing is, 2) that it makes me organize the story more, because I have to wrap it up to present it, and it makes me think about eventual audience, and all kinds of things like that. The point is, the posting has become a crucial part of my composition process; even without much feedback, I still have to think harder about how I present my work to an audience, and how I organize the loose ends of a story and whether the things I'm putting in pull their weight in terms of advancing the story, and such.
This isn't like soliciting beta feedback, either. I've done that, and it's hard for me because it's so different than this kind of posting. This is what fanfic has trained me to do and I'm finding it hard to adapt to any other method, now.
So, anyway. I think I'm going to take advantage of DW's ability to filter audiences, and start posting this original novel I'm working on, which is still very much in an alpha draft, not even beta yet, on a f-locked filter. I'll put this first one up publicly, and maybe the next couple will be just f-locked, but I'll probably set up a filter just of people who've said they're interested, in the long-term, so as not to clutter the Internet at large and such. And to keep control of the thing, since the idea is to publish it.(Though let's be real, I'll probably self-pub because that involves asking for fewer things and I have to stick to baby steps in my self-improvement, ok.)
So it's a novel, and I have a lot of it written, and I'll come up with a regular schedule for it, but the caveats are, it's not a finished work at this point, it will need revisions, and I may not wind up posting the completed thing (in my experience, the endings of stories usually require heroic efforts). It's not that I'm looking for beta-reading or concrit, particularly-- I will be, but probably that'll be a revision I'll put in a Google doc and ask separately for help with, you know?
I just want to organize something and put it in front of eyes, and those can just be eyes reading for enjoyment, you know? There's no homework. I just want something comfortable, with a deadline to motivate me, and something that I can have conversations about. I get so lonely and locked-in in silence just writing alone.
So-- probably weekly? probably a chunk of no more than 5k words, probably less? Let me know if you want in. I'll post the first chunk shortly, as a separate thing, because I know it would annoy me if I were rereading and kept having to wade through the text of myself trying to think through an idea like this post is.
And if you're not willing to commit to Dreamwidth, don't despair-- I'll post publicly and try to remember to crosspost when the project (crosses fingers) moves forward, like to solicit beta readers on a Google doc of the revision, and when (when!) I'm formatting it for publishing, and so on. (When! There is no if! It's when! Argh! Yes!)
But anyway-- alpha draft, intended to read for pleasure and discussion, comment on any unlocked entry if you want to be granted access to the filter for it. (I could probably write up a brief tutorial on how to subscribe only to that filter of my stuff, if I knew how; probably the hack is, you make a reading filter excluding my journal and then visit the tag, or whitelist only that tag, or something? Clearly I have to think harder about how that works. At any rate, I'm going to tag this, of course, "the solarpunk mammoths novel", and be rigorous about using it.)
This isn't like soliciting beta feedback, either. I've done that, and it's hard for me because it's so different than this kind of posting. This is what fanfic has trained me to do and I'm finding it hard to adapt to any other method, now.
So, anyway. I think I'm going to take advantage of DW's ability to filter audiences, and start posting this original novel I'm working on, which is still very much in an alpha draft, not even beta yet, on a f-locked filter. I'll put this first one up publicly, and maybe the next couple will be just f-locked, but I'll probably set up a filter just of people who've said they're interested, in the long-term, so as not to clutter the Internet at large and such. And to keep control of the thing, since the idea is to publish it.(Though let's be real, I'll probably self-pub because that involves asking for fewer things and I have to stick to baby steps in my self-improvement, ok.)
So it's a novel, and I have a lot of it written, and I'll come up with a regular schedule for it, but the caveats are, it's not a finished work at this point, it will need revisions, and I may not wind up posting the completed thing (in my experience, the endings of stories usually require heroic efforts). It's not that I'm looking for beta-reading or concrit, particularly-- I will be, but probably that'll be a revision I'll put in a Google doc and ask separately for help with, you know?
I just want to organize something and put it in front of eyes, and those can just be eyes reading for enjoyment, you know? There's no homework. I just want something comfortable, with a deadline to motivate me, and something that I can have conversations about. I get so lonely and locked-in in silence just writing alone.
So-- probably weekly? probably a chunk of no more than 5k words, probably less? Let me know if you want in. I'll post the first chunk shortly, as a separate thing, because I know it would annoy me if I were rereading and kept having to wade through the text of myself trying to think through an idea like this post is.
And if you're not willing to commit to Dreamwidth, don't despair-- I'll post publicly and try to remember to crosspost when the project (crosses fingers) moves forward, like to solicit beta readers on a Google doc of the revision, and when (when!) I'm formatting it for publishing, and so on. (When! There is no if! It's when! Argh! Yes!)
But anyway-- alpha draft, intended to read for pleasure and discussion, comment on any unlocked entry if you want to be granted access to the filter for it. (I could probably write up a brief tutorial on how to subscribe only to that filter of my stuff, if I knew how; probably the hack is, you make a reading filter excluding my journal and then visit the tag, or whitelist only that tag, or something? Clearly I have to think harder about how that works. At any rate, I'm going to tag this, of course, "the solarpunk mammoths novel", and be rigorous about using it.)
no subject
Date: 2019-01-01 02:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-02 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-02 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-02 08:02 am (UTC)I also appreciate your clarity about what you are and aren't looking for, from readers.
In that spirit, I feel like I should clearly say that there may be significant delays between when you post and when I read your f-locked posts--I've gotten into the habit of frequently browsing my DW read page without logging in. (OTOH, having an attractive reason to log in more often may get me to post more often. Bonus!)
I'm hoping that's an acceptable level of reader unpredictability. But if you think it would bug you, I'm also OK with not being on the filter. In that case, I'll hope to read it when you reach a stage where that feels OK to you.
All hail the Solar Mammoths! \😀/ Here I go to read the first chapter!
Wishing you and yours an excellent 2019!
light_of_summer
no subject
Date: 2019-01-02 05:02 pm (UTC)p.s. your first paragraph is very interesting because for me, the act of posting is what motivates me to write. If I don’t ultimately want to share a story with others, I’m totally uninterested in the hard work of writing it down. So I don’t have reams of iddy drawer fic, like a lot of people I know (just inchoate daydream narratives).
no subject
Date: 2019-01-03 04:55 pm (UTC)