The Public Parts
Nov. 6th, 2008 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cedar_groveHere is the final part of what turned out to be a four part series concerning the writing of the stories in our series.
Writing
Every writer has their own way of working, of course. For the most part I write in scene order, though if something 'sticks' me I'll put a place marker into place and then move on, to come back to that part at a quieter moment...
Sometimes I write with music playing, to help with a mood, other times I have no sound at all, and for certain scenes I'll write with my eyes closed, to keep the picture in my head. Whatever happens, I end up with a word document of usually between 25 and 35 pages... depending on the story.
So, you wonder what happens next? Well, next the word file gets sent by Email to my wonderful Beta Reader - take a bow Spikey - I'd be lost without her, which is odd, because I've never had a Beta before, and if you'd have asked me a back before she galantly volunteered for the position, I'd probably have hesitated to have a Beta. You see, most writers I know, including myself, are inherently insecure. It's scary showing your work to other people. Which of course is pretty much stupid, because otherwise, why write it?
I get back a wonderful Email, full of blue words, and things that may need attention... and once all that has been done, it's time to convert the word document to HTML. I could do that simply by saving it as an HTML file on word - but word puts in a whole bunch of messy code, so I do it by hand... copying the entire thing into notepad as a plan text file, and adding the formatting and html coding myself.
Once I've done that, it gets uploaded to the website... on it's own page within the Atlantis section of the website.
Letting People Know
As well as being my Beta Reader, Spikey doubles as my publicity manager. *chuckle* I post that updates have been made to my own LJ (i.e. here), and to a couple of communities on LJ. Spikey pokes just about everyone else, posting on Gateworld forums that there has been an update.
Feedback
If someone takes the time to post feedback to me at any of these places, it's my belief that I should take the time to at least thank them, and/or answer any questions they might have. Oh there might be a couple of exceptions to that, but not often. As a writer I appreciate the readers, and want to let them know that.
So that's the entire process really... now all that's left to do is to go get writing Mantle
Writing
Every writer has their own way of working, of course. For the most part I write in scene order, though if something 'sticks' me I'll put a place marker into place and then move on, to come back to that part at a quieter moment...
Sometimes I write with music playing, to help with a mood, other times I have no sound at all, and for certain scenes I'll write with my eyes closed, to keep the picture in my head. Whatever happens, I end up with a word document of usually between 25 and 35 pages... depending on the story.
So, you wonder what happens next? Well, next the word file gets sent by Email to my wonderful Beta Reader - take a bow Spikey - I'd be lost without her, which is odd, because I've never had a Beta before, and if you'd have asked me a back before she galantly volunteered for the position, I'd probably have hesitated to have a Beta. You see, most writers I know, including myself, are inherently insecure. It's scary showing your work to other people. Which of course is pretty much stupid, because otherwise, why write it?
I get back a wonderful Email, full of blue words, and things that may need attention... and once all that has been done, it's time to convert the word document to HTML. I could do that simply by saving it as an HTML file on word - but word puts in a whole bunch of messy code, so I do it by hand... copying the entire thing into notepad as a plan text file, and adding the formatting and html coding myself.
Once I've done that, it gets uploaded to the website... on it's own page within the Atlantis section of the website.
Letting People Know
As well as being my Beta Reader, Spikey doubles as my publicity manager. *chuckle* I post that updates have been made to my own LJ (i.e. here), and to a couple of communities on LJ. Spikey pokes just about everyone else, posting on Gateworld forums that there has been an update.
Feedback
If someone takes the time to post feedback to me at any of these places, it's my belief that I should take the time to at least thank them, and/or answer any questions they might have. Oh there might be a couple of exceptions to that, but not often. As a writer I appreciate the readers, and want to let them know that.
So that's the entire process really... now all that's left to do is to go get writing Mantle
