I know I have three headlines at the top of the post, but what I can report on them could probably be written on the back of an envelope, that's if you could post the back of an envelope on the Internet (Note to self, might have to try that).
First Beta Comments Back
At last, the first drips of what I hope will become a steady flow of comments from my beta-readers have come back to me. One reader a new reader for whom this is their first encounter with the story while the other read the last draft, so for them this is the second time they've read it.However, both have provided some very detailed feedback and it will be interesting to see if a pattern emerges between the first time beta-readers and the second-time-rounders and if the two camps pick up similar things accordingly.
Audio Beta Slow Progress
Reading out loud is really difficult. You wouldn't think it, would you? It's just saying words as you read them. How hard can it be? And for a former puppeteer too! For someone like me, talking should be the last thing I have trouble with.Yeah, well, it seems that after three or four scenes my mouth seizes up and decides it's not going to play ball any more. It might just be because I've been feeling tired lately (lots going on besides writing) and tiredness always affects concentration. And then, once mistakes build-up, frustration creeps in prompting more mistakes and the circle feds itself until one becomes a gibbering wreck.
So, progress on the audio beta has been slow this week as I've hit frustration point sooner with each recording session. My two loyal beta-listeners both have the first hour or so that's already in the digital can, so I'm going to have to focus and pick up my pace to keep them up to date with fresh material.
Kiranan Pseudo-Pantsing
In NITM#13 I announced that I'm just going for it and launch into writing the first draft of the first Kiranan's Crucible book without doing any more planning. Well, I've started!I've got the general plot laid down, so it's not as if I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen, but I've stopped trying to pin-down every single detail before I touch the keyboard and write each scene. So there will be a certain amount of detail that I'll skip over in the first draft, while I'll insert others simply as placeholders until a permanent solution can be found for the second draft.
So it's pantsing of sorts, only this form of pantsing has some lines within which I need to keep my metaphorical crayons.
It may drive me totally mad and I may change my mind in a few weeks, but it is good to be writing again, even if all the current material is eventually going to be edited it out. I'm not word counting this time round either, but scene counting, so we'll how that works out too!
So There You Go...
Another week on Planet Gilbert and another Muse News. Be sure to check back next Monday to find out how it's all going!(via Notes In The Margin on Thursday, of course...)
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