Well, it's been a bit since I've posted here, hasn't it? That's probably because all my activity lately has been in fandom, and I generally put forth a little bit of effort to keep my fandom life and my "real" life separate. I've been busy writing a novel-length work that I just finished and which has proven pretty popular, so yay for that! But it's not "original" work, so for some people, it doesn't count.
Whatever. They're entitled to their opinions, but since they don't read my stuff anyway, I don't have to worry about those opinions. Win-win for all involved.
Anyway, now that my 100,000 words of fanfic are complete (I did say it was novel-length), I can finally come back and devote energy to the original novel that I've been working on! If you're one of the two people who follow this blog, you'll know that I posted a draft of Chapter 7 to my reading crew back in September. Here it is December, and I'm finally done with Chapter 8. Yes, I know this is slow; that's what happens when you're writing a different novel at the same time.
But yeah. My reading crew. If you're a writer, I highly recommend you get yourself one. If you write fanfic and are trying to switch over to writing original stuff, I highly recommend you get yourself one. In the dim distant days of the Long Ago Time, authors wrote in a vacuum; no one saw their work till the first draft went to the editor, and no one saw the finished piece till it was published.
I can't operate like that.
Fanfic has gotten me into the habit of posting what would have been called "serials", back in the day, and there's nothing wrong with that; we've been doing it in the West since the invention of movable type in the 17th century. I mean, all of The Three Musketeers was originally posted serially, continuity errors and all (did you know Alexandre Dumas made D'Artagnan a Musketeer twice in that story? Well, now you do).
Modern day serials are great, in that you post a chapter online, and then you get feedback and encouragement to write the next chapter, and then you get more feedback, and so on. Now, I do know people for whom that's not the case -- I've been very blessed to have entered the right fandoms at the right time to build a following -- but for the most part, that's how fanfic works. You post serially, and get feedback between chapters. (In the interests of accuracy, yes, there are people who wait and then post an entire work all at once; I'm not one of them, though, and I don't know how they survive that long without hearing from their audience.)
For me, that cycle of feedback has gotten a little addictive. I need to hear back from someone that my work doesn't suck, that they like where I'm taking the story, that they want to know what happens next. I'm pretty sure I can't publish my novel serially and expect to make any money off of it, but while I'm writing it, I can put together a reading crew who will look my drafts over, offer feedback, and wave their cheerleading pompoms at me to keep me going.
Some people call these folks beta readers (from computer programming, beta testers). I've also heard them called alpha readers, with the argument that a beta's job is more about developmental edits and looking for wacky characterization or continuity errors, after a work is finished. (Dumas probably didn't have a beta.) (Actually, no, I know he didn't, but that's another story.) I have one or two beta readers already, but for this stage of development, they don't need to do any editing; they just offer their thoughts and notes about how different characters are behaving, what they think of the plot as it develops, and so on.
If you're a writer, get yourself a crew of people to read and offer encouragement, until the first draft is done. Be sure to thank them in the acknowledgments. After the first draft is done, send it to your betas. Then prepare to revise. After that... after that is a mysterious land I haven't entered yet, that includes hiring an editor to really go over your piece with a fine-toothed comb.
I'm rambling. What was my point? I have a reading crew and they're wonderful, and they're looking at Chapter 8 of my novel right now. Last night, I chatted with some of them to answer a few world building questions about crime and punishment, and ended up with a really excellent plot point to explore in a later chapter. That was fun. World building is my weakness. I can't stay away from it any more than I can stay away from dark chocolate.
For those following me to this blog from Tumblr, "the hellsite" is having a meltdown right now, and I have a feeling that they're going to lose a LOT of users soon. In anticipation of that, and also in acknowledgement that my novel is not fandom-based but is part of my "real life", I'm expecting to post here a bit more often as my novel progresses. I really, sincerely hope people will be interested in reading about those adventures, and that you'll leave a comment or two on my posts so I know I'm not just shouting into the void.
Take care, everyone, and talk to you soon.
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