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lenora_roseI am THIS close to being finished the novel draft of Labyrinth. As in, I'm in the denouement, which alas needs a lot of work. If I were feeling better, I'd be doing it right now. (Slight cold and need sleep. Nothing worse.)
The Labyrinth revision went very differently from my expectations. I cut some, yes, but added more. Not because there aren't more bits I can trim out yet, but because the basic shape of the book was wrong so often i couldn't *see* whether a given scene was needed or not, and I *definitely* couldn't do much sentence level trimming when I was debating whether the larger picture was right. And I don't think i can do a second run through right now, though I also don't think I need as long a break as I did to start this revision.
Still, I think it will be ready for other pairs of eyes by sometime this very weekend, as long as they know they're getting a whopping 150K monstrosity and that they're definitely especially encouraged to say, "What does this serve?" about any scene or word.
Thus: BETA CALL: Anyone ready to give it a go? Any kind of crit - full "track changes" style practically editing, or just an overview and general assessment. No set time limit, but I would be happy with as few months as possible. And if you've offered before and it's fallen through, I may expect some kind of a progress indicator. (I'm understanding as I have flubbed and/or dawdled on critiques myself, I'll just want some sign it's actually happening). And if you've never critted before, this is NOT just a chance to read ahead. It can be a lot of work. (I can point you to resources that have useful suggestions how and what to say.)
Other relevant point:
So, I am, or will be, done in lots of time for NaNoWriMo. So I'm planning to try again. I've even got my novel set up there.
I think the Lost Ocean is going to be a bit of an angry book, which makes two in a row, since during the course of Labyrinth, Heather is running almost entirely on the power of her irritation, fury, and/or outrage, as the situation warrants. (Laurel not so much. Which makes her look weaker even though I don't really think that's who or how she is in the long run.) In this case it will be a wider variety of people being angry and for more reasons. Although I suppose the core one - people being shoved into a situation they don't want and don't like - is kind of similar. The God in question is ambiguous, though, where the Maze-Keeper is pretty clearly a right bastard off the hop.
The Labyrinth revision went very differently from my expectations. I cut some, yes, but added more. Not because there aren't more bits I can trim out yet, but because the basic shape of the book was wrong so often i couldn't *see* whether a given scene was needed or not, and I *definitely* couldn't do much sentence level trimming when I was debating whether the larger picture was right. And I don't think i can do a second run through right now, though I also don't think I need as long a break as I did to start this revision.
Still, I think it will be ready for other pairs of eyes by sometime this very weekend, as long as they know they're getting a whopping 150K monstrosity and that they're definitely especially encouraged to say, "What does this serve?" about any scene or word.
Thus: BETA CALL: Anyone ready to give it a go? Any kind of crit - full "track changes" style practically editing, or just an overview and general assessment. No set time limit, but I would be happy with as few months as possible. And if you've offered before and it's fallen through, I may expect some kind of a progress indicator. (I'm understanding as I have flubbed and/or dawdled on critiques myself, I'll just want some sign it's actually happening). And if you've never critted before, this is NOT just a chance to read ahead. It can be a lot of work. (I can point you to resources that have useful suggestions how and what to say.)
Other relevant point:
So, I am, or will be, done in lots of time for NaNoWriMo. So I'm planning to try again. I've even got my novel set up there.
I think the Lost Ocean is going to be a bit of an angry book, which makes two in a row, since during the course of Labyrinth, Heather is running almost entirely on the power of her irritation, fury, and/or outrage, as the situation warrants. (Laurel not so much. Which makes her look weaker even though I don't really think that's who or how she is in the long run.) In this case it will be a wider variety of people being angry and for more reasons. Although I suppose the core one - people being shoved into a situation they don't want and don't like - is kind of similar. The God in question is ambiguous, though, where the Maze-Keeper is pretty clearly a right bastard off the hop.
