In-progress files are available on my off-site story page; click on my homepage link! Not only does that update more often, but you can also read my raw scenes that I've typed into the computer!

April 08, 2008

Thine is still being worked on, I promise. I lost my fanfic binder for a while (and felt really stupid, since it turned out that the problem was that it was red, and I was looking for a blue binder...) but I've found it again. I've got most of another chapter written; it needs typing, cleaning up, and some transitions. There are about six scenes that still need to be written for it, though, and I'm stuck on those.

One Morning in Rio is one of those plotbunnies that just would not go away. I'm sure I'm about the six millionth person to write her version, but I had to do it anyway. A word of warning: it's got massive spoilers for New Moon. However, it's probably not the last Twilight fanfic you'll see from me; I've got a whole host of plotbunnies gnawing at my ankles for that series. I'd like to get at least some of them written before the next book comes out and makes them all obsolete. Plus, if I can't get Severus to angst for me until Edward's done angsting... well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

February 29, 2008

Well, my promised end-of-february update is up, even if I did leave it until the last minute. :D

I wanted to write a brief note about how I write stories, so that you'll have some understanding of how I can be actively working on the story and yet have no updates appearing.

Anytime I'm waiting anywhere, for example waiting for class to start, I try to work on my story in my head. Usually this takes the form of me daydreaming about my favorite scenes, but often I'll try to work out what will come next, or work on the grand story idea. I generally have the really important scenes "written" in my head months before they ever make it to paper. Some scenes don't appear until I sit down to write. It varies. The furthest scene I currently have "written" in my head takes place roughly 10 years after OOTP, give or take a few years! I spend a great deal of this time fleshing out my version of the HP universe: magical theory, names for things, timelines, wizarding sociology, economics, magical biology... there's really a tremendous amount of thought that goes into my concept of the universe (as my friend, who gets to hear me pontificate on it on a regular basis, can tell you!).

Then, every night, before bed, I write--with real, honest-to-god pen and paper--at least a page or two on the story. I'll also work on the story during boring lectures, weekends, generally anytime I have my story clipboard and some free time. I originally started by trying to always start from where I'd left off, but that ended right quick. I have a tendency to want to write new versions of scenes I don't like, and sometimes I just can't think of what to write next. Thus, usually I work on a scene I have going, or I start a new scene, or I try a new point of view of a scene I've already written. These papers get stuck into my clipcase and generally ignored for a while; I try to put them in my story binder once a week or so, and do some rough temporal organization, figuring out which scenes were supposed to go together, that sort of thing.

Once I have a good backlog of scenes written, I sit down and type them into the computer. At that point, I do some beta-editing for repetition, spelling, grammar errors, minor canon errors, that sort of thing. This is the stage where I do things like make up the spell names, check the HP Lexicon for current-canon spells, try to find the name of some minor canon character... These scenes are usually quite rough, however, and are unlikely to make it into the fic as-is.

Then, once I have a fairly good idea of what will happen next, I sit down with my story file in one window and the scenes file in another, and sometimes untyped scenes in my lap, and start typing. At this point I work on connecting the scenes, making sure they all make sense as a group, that minor differences between scenes are resolved, and that the characters stay in-character. Sometimes whole new scenes will show up out of my fingers; the last scene in Chapter 5 is a good example. Usually, though, this consists of stringing together already-written scenes with material in the middle: establishing why Harry is in the library, getting him from the library to the dining room, that sort of thing.

At that point, I re-read the whole story. Yes, the whole story. I make sure that what I've just typed in makes sense in context, and that it doesn't contradict anything I wrote previously. I check temporal consistency, I check the HP lexicon and/or the books again to make sure I've got canon things right, I generally beta-read the work. This is the point at which the most re-writing occurs, other than writing different scene versions; I spend a very long time trying to make sure that my wording is the best that I can make it, that it flows, that the diction, contractions, sentence structure, all of that is in-character. I do future compatibility checks, too; if I plan to do something with a concept I mention in this chapter, I try to make sure that when I write that future chapter, readers will be able to go back and say "Oh, yeah...".
Then, once I feel a chapter is "good enough"--which usually means that, despite having the next few chapters planned out and/or written, I haven't changed it in a while--I'll post it here.

Right now, for example, I have about 200 pages of hand-written material (I've gone through at least two 100-page packs of paper, at least) that is either in my scenes file, or waiting for me to type it up. Some of the scenes are short half-page things I've scribbled down in class; one of them is currently 22 hand-written pages and counting. Some scenes have been written six or seven times; others won't be written at all until I actually put them in the fic.

I write on average 3-4 pages a day, so it is actively being updated! Please don't think I've forgotten you!

January 19, 2008

I think all of you deserve a heads-up as to what happened to me. The Sunday after US Thanksgiving (25 Nov 2007) I was driving back up to my place at school when a large van came over into my lane and forced me off the freeway. I rolled down a 40 foot embankment going 65mph.

I am exceedingly lucky to have survived. I fractured my neck, squashed my dominant hand (not permanently, thank god), and I was cut all over, including a nasty laceration on my forehead. I have to say, I have a hell of a lot more sympathy for Harry in my story now, and damn do I wish I had Madame Pomfrey around. I have spent the last few months in physical therapy, and I'm now able to type and write with maybe 85 to 90 percent of my former ability.

Almost everything in my car was lost, including most of my notes on the story. My laptop survived, so I have what was on there, and about 20 pages of notes, but almost none of the work on the next few chapters. It's taken me quite a while to get back up to speed on the story, and I'm sorry about that.

I have most of Chapter 6 put together now, but I don't want to post Chapter 5 here until I'm quite sure I won't need to modify it heavily for the next few chapters. You can read what's put together on my website, which is linked as my homepage. Those of you who have read what I've posted there can probably appreciate that Chapter 6 is very hard to write (at least, write well) and so it's taking quite a bit of time. I anticipate once I get it all ironed out, things should speed up again.

I'm very sorry about the delay. I'm hoping to get Chapter 5 posted by the end of February.