Ghost Stories concrit request post
Aug. 14th, 2008 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rallamajoopRight, I've had a bit of a break, time to start thinking about editing the final version of The Telling of One Billion Ghost Stories into some kind of shape.
I still want to post the finished copy in chapters, as 90,000 words is far too much to tackle in one go, but it'll need to be compressed down to fewer installments or I'll be posting this thing just about forever. So far, the plan is to try for chapters around twice as long as most of the draft ones (4000 words or so, allowing for where scene breaks will work), posting twice a week but probably only plugging them from the comms every couple of chapters because otherwise the spam is going to get epic. If I keep that up, it's still going to take me around least ten weeks to get it all posted. Obviously, both I and whoever's betaing will need a serious head start to keep up that kind of pace, so I'd better make sure I'm a good way through with the editing before I start posting at all.The way my schedule looks right now, if this is all done by the end of the year, I should probably count it as a big success. I am also going to friends lock all the entries for the draft version once I start posting the finished one, since I'm not keen on the idea of having both versions out there on the web at once.
I'm of two minds about how much work to go to in the editing stage. The first version goes, "Hey, look how many people loved this story and/or told you it was too good to be a draft already! Just run a proper spell check and call it done!" The second goes, "This is the longest, most serious project you have ever embarked upon, and it does not deserve to be done by halves. You should be editing this thing to within an inch of its life." It's probably in everyone's best interests if I lean heavily towards option B there.
Right now my list of things that need fixing goes like this:
Now is the part where I ask people to help me add to that list. The support in the feedback on the draft made all the difference at keeping me going, but it's time to put on the concrit goggles and let me know what if anything didn't work so well. Were there any particular scenes that felt off? Any aspects that didn't keep consistent all the way through the story? Any parts that needed fleshing out more, or that dragged on too much? Were there any bad habits or awkward turns of phrase that started grating on your nerves after showing up too many times? If there's anyone reading this who read part way through the story but lost interest at some point, what was it that turned you off? Did the focus shift too much away from Doumeki and Watanuki and on to the other characters in the last section? Was there too much talking and not enough action at the end? Whatever you might've thought needed polishing up, let me know, I'd be keen to get some discussion going on this. What I don't want to do is make anyone feel obligated to read back through the whole thing to find every little spelling error - general impressions are much more use to me at this stage, and whatever you can pull from memory is fine.
If anyone wants to volunteer their services as a beta reader, that'd be great too. Considering the scale of this story, having a couple of different perspectives would be a big help.
I still want to post the finished copy in chapters, as 90,000 words is far too much to tackle in one go, but it'll need to be compressed down to fewer installments or I'll be posting this thing just about forever. So far, the plan is to try for chapters around twice as long as most of the draft ones (4000 words or so, allowing for where scene breaks will work), posting twice a week but probably only plugging them from the comms every couple of chapters because otherwise the spam is going to get epic. If I keep that up, it's still going to take me around least ten weeks to get it all posted. Obviously, both I and whoever's betaing will need a serious head start to keep up that kind of pace, so I'd better make sure I'm a good way through with the editing before I start posting at all.
I'm of two minds about how much work to go to in the editing stage. The first version goes, "Hey, look how many people loved this story and/or told you it was too good to be a draft already! Just run a proper spell check and call it done!" The second goes, "This is the longest, most serious project you have ever embarked upon, and it does not deserve to be done by halves. You should be editing this thing to within an inch of its life." It's probably in everyone's best interests if I lean heavily towards option B there.
Right now my list of things that need fixing goes like this:
- 1. Chapter one needs to be fixed up so that it works as a first part of a long story rather than a standalone snippet, and a lot of material from the draft notes needs to be incorporated in properly.
2. Fill in that missing scene from part 7. (Oh man, and I still have no idea what should be in it.
3. Stop being so vague about names! The story would benefit a lot from having proper names for the separate Complexes, some kind of standard description for the destructive storm of mad ghosts that show up when Watanuki's (or other's) lives are in danger, and probably also for each of Yuzuriha's four birds too. (
4. It could be useful to include a scene or two with a couple of characters who work as traveling traders, especially as a way of explaining how news and stories like the one about the April Fool get around. I have no idea who to cast as them yet though.
5. Add in a little earlier material hinting at Haruka's existence/Doumeki's childhood. Possibly also work in a reference to the existence of Giant Mutant Birds earlier in the story somewhere.
6. Freaking clarify how long it took to fly to the Complex and back already! There is no realistic way they got all that done in one day, so a little note or two either to shorten everything or to add where nightfall happened is going to be needed.
7. Rewrite the climatic conversation with Tomoyo to include all those things you came up with that should have been in there but which you didn't think of until after you'd posted it (gee, thanks brain), and rearrange the order of what's said a bit.
8. General reread and editing of just about everything else.
Now is the part where I ask people to help me add to that list. The support in the feedback on the draft made all the difference at keeping me going, but it's time to put on the concrit goggles and let me know what if anything didn't work so well. Were there any particular scenes that felt off? Any aspects that didn't keep consistent all the way through the story? Any parts that needed fleshing out more, or that dragged on too much? Were there any bad habits or awkward turns of phrase that started grating on your nerves after showing up too many times? If there's anyone reading this who read part way through the story but lost interest at some point, what was it that turned you off? Did the focus shift too much away from Doumeki and Watanuki and on to the other characters in the last section? Was there too much talking and not enough action at the end? Whatever you might've thought needed polishing up, let me know, I'd be keen to get some discussion going on this. What I don't want to do is make anyone feel obligated to read back through the whole thing to find every little spelling error - general impressions are much more use to me at this stage, and whatever you can pull from memory is fine.
If anyone wants to volunteer their services as a beta reader, that'd be great too. Considering the scale of this story, having a couple of different perspectives would be a big help.