AQATSA: It looks like an elephant
Dec. 8th, 2011 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inveraritySo if you think of a book as a lump of clay or a block of wood that starts out not at all shaped like an elephant, and you have to mold or cut away everything that doesn't look like an elephant until you get the finished product (and bear with me as I horribly butcher my metaphors), then Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above now looks an awful lot like an elephant.
However, the hide still needs a few more wrinkles, and I haven't quite decided yet if it's an African elephant or an Asian elephant. (It's the ears.)
My betas have both read the entire draft and given general approbation, though not without a list of things large and small that could be improved. I am now making revisions and discussing them back and forth.
One of my problems is that I can fiddle endlessly and never be satisfied. I know you probably think I am displaying false modesty when I say I worry that my writing sucks, but seriously, I worry that my writing sucks. Yes, I know it doesn't really suck in the way that My Immortal sucks or even in the way the average fan fic sucks. That's not how author insecurity works. I am aware that I write reasonably well, and that I certainly write better than most fan fiction authors. On my good days, I can even convince myself that I write better than some published authors. (See? That's how I can be simultaneously insecure and arrogant. I am large, I contain multitudes.) So it's not like I am completely incapable of evaluating my own writing ability, for better and for worse. But, to evaluate an individual work, especially against the standards of what I want to achieve, is much harder. I want every AQ book to be better than the one before it; I worry that each one has gone off the rails.
Honestly, I am not fishing for compliments here. This is just author rambling, so I'm telling you how my mind works.
Anyway, the point of all of the above is that sometimes it helps to commit myself. So I am announcing a release date: I will begin officially posting Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above on... Friday, December 30.
Yeah, it's waiting until the very end of the year, but at least I am keeping my promise! ;)
As usual, all promises about deadlines and posting rates are conditional on my not getting hit by a bus.
I might even post a sneak preview of Chapter One before that.
The current word count is 252K words and 40 chapters.
I was going to post the (tentative) Table of Contents as another sneak preview. On the one hand, it might be a little spoilery. On the other hand, it shouldn't be too spoilery, since anyone who reads the entire book once it's all posted will be able to read the chapter titles before starting the book. The titles certainly give some clues about what will happen in the book, but it's not like Chapter 7 is titled "Yes, Bonnie is a Witch"... Whoops!
Anyway, 'cause I like stupid polls, I willtrollpoll you (and probably ignore the results). Have a poll.
[Poll #1801742]
However, the hide still needs a few more wrinkles, and I haven't quite decided yet if it's an African elephant or an Asian elephant. (It's the ears.)
My betas have both read the entire draft and given general approbation, though not without a list of things large and small that could be improved. I am now making revisions and discussing them back and forth.
One of my problems is that I can fiddle endlessly and never be satisfied. I know you probably think I am displaying false modesty when I say I worry that my writing sucks, but seriously, I worry that my writing sucks. Yes, I know it doesn't really suck in the way that My Immortal sucks or even in the way the average fan fic sucks. That's not how author insecurity works. I am aware that I write reasonably well, and that I certainly write better than most fan fiction authors. On my good days, I can even convince myself that I write better than some published authors. (See? That's how I can be simultaneously insecure and arrogant. I am large, I contain multitudes.) So it's not like I am completely incapable of evaluating my own writing ability, for better and for worse. But, to evaluate an individual work, especially against the standards of what I want to achieve, is much harder. I want every AQ book to be better than the one before it; I worry that each one has gone off the rails.
Honestly, I am not fishing for compliments here. This is just author rambling, so I'm telling you how my mind works.
Anyway, the point of all of the above is that sometimes it helps to commit myself. So I am announcing a release date: I will begin officially posting Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above on... Friday, December 30.
Yeah, it's waiting until the very end of the year, but at least I am keeping my promise! ;)
As usual, all promises about deadlines and posting rates are conditional on my not getting hit by a bus.
I might even post a sneak preview of Chapter One before that.
The current word count is 252K words and 40 chapters.
I was going to post the (tentative) Table of Contents as another sneak preview. On the one hand, it might be a little spoilery. On the other hand, it shouldn't be too spoilery, since anyone who reads the entire book once it's all posted will be able to read the chapter titles before starting the book. The titles certainly give some clues about what will happen in the book, but it's not like Chapter 7 is titled "Yes, Bonnie is a Witch"... Whoops!
Anyway, 'cause I like stupid polls, I will
[Poll #1801742]
