icarusancalion

People have begun to comment on Dragonlord.

First: Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

Ahem.

Reading reviews is fascinating. I learn a great deal in the process.

1 - Readers' relief that the story isn't at all the mess I portrayed it to be. Oh. Sorry. It came together at the end. It seems I complained too much in the writing when it was going badly, then posted not at all when it was going well. I'd scared people. Note to self: fewer complaints next time, more balance.

2 - Pleased surprise at Elizabeth as a strong leader. Oh. Interesting. In my mind, Elizabeth is a strong, smart, and competent leader, and I hand-wave any canon indications to the contrary. An AU is a perfect opportunity to write my Elizabeth.

3 - Love and squee for two particular dragons. *grins* I love them, too. I had a heads up from my betas on this dragon love. The response seems to be universal on both counts.

4 - Lord John vs. Dragonrider John, which John do people like better, plus his reactions to the Weyr. Yes! The theme(s) of the story is coming through loud and clear.

5 - Enjoyment of the detailed descriptions. Methinks I wasn't the only one who wanted to see Pern more. McCaffrey isn't a setting writer, except for certain scenes.

6 - Non-Pern and Pern readers both find themselves at home. The Pern readers say either it slots into canon nicely or extends canon very well. The non-Pern readers unanimously (so far) say they could understand what was going on.

In other words: Eureka! It works! Bwahahahahahaha!

Just got home, and discovered -- the Atlantis Big Bang is live!

Dragonlord is up.

Story: Dragonlord
Author: icarusancalion
Fandom: SGA/Dragonriders of Pern fusion
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: R
Warnings: None, this is pure fantasy fun.
Summary: A bewildered John, lead contender to the Hold of Benden, is caught in the male-bonding, homoerotic culture of the Dragonweyr when he inadvertently Impresses a dragon.

( The dragon's rider clambered off, grumbling to himself. "I have to deal with the wherry-farming, rock-headed... You!" The man raised his voice and pointed. John looked behind himself for another rider. But he was alone. "No, I mean the wine casks--yes, you!"


Aside: It's finally here!

I've linked you to a snippet of the coming SGA/Pern fusion coming this weekend.

I've given you music. With a vid! And the story behind the story.

It looks like we might have to wait an extra day (I'm sorry!) for the Big Bang to go live. One author isn't quite ready, and a couple of art pieces aren't quite there.

Since that late author could have been me, I'm not complaining.

My artist is miso_no_tsuki, who has some beautiful previews here. She's the same who did art for Out Of Bounds and that breathtaking piece for Tanlines and Dogtags.

Let me set out some magazines in the Atlantis Big Bang waiting room.

A few other Pern fusions:

On The Wings Of Imagination by xparrot, SGA/Pern, PG
This may have been the story that lurked in the back of my mind, whispering, there should be more SGA/Pern in this world. John is a dragon. Rodney is a Smith. I wanted so much more after this fic.

With Healing In His Wings by xparrot, SGA/Pern PG
Fortunately, Xparrot generously provided a follow-up. With hurt/comfort. And fluff.

Dragonriders of Pern Kradam by anonymous, NC-17 for the Kink Meme.
I made a point of not reading this until after I'd finished my story, but it turns out anonymous and I have a similar take on certain aspects of the Weyr. Now, I have no idea what Kradam is, but this is hot. And I wanted to stick the other dragonriders with a hot poker. Proddy, indeed.


I confess. I'm so excited about the Big Bang, I can't sleep. :D

The preview to my atlanisbigbang SGA/Dragonrider fusion is now up.

Story snippet, mmmmmmmmmm....

Jesus. I just wrote an 80k word, 300 page novel in twelve weeks.

Whoa.

Was all set for the final buffing of my SGA/Dragonrider fusion Sunday night. Betas were ready. So much to do, but YES WE CAN!

The atlantisbigbang deadline was moved to September 21.

Days ago.

Now I'm buffing my nails. Writing a few changes. Clicking on a movie.

A movie.

I'd forgotten what it was like to do anything but writewritewritewrite.

Taking the night off.

Feeling tired and hopeless about my story. Have been doing nothing else (besides work), up until 3am writing the last few nights.

Keyboard problems are now really bad. Getting Fs instead of Rs, and have to press with all my strength.

Good night.

I have an Atlantis Big Bang draft. It was hastily written in Dr Wicked in the space of five weekends, more or less. The betas and artist (possibly both artists) enjoy it. It's also, wow, the roughest draft I've ever done.

I'm usually a "clean" writer. I write fast, so even on tight deadlines I have time to polish up my short stories. (My novels have always been WIPs.) But I've never written this fast in my life. 60k words in--because I could only write weekends and started July 4th--about fifteen days (I'm not defensive, am I?).

Now I have advice in hand on how to deal with a messy draft.

Checklist of What To Do With A Draft:

- Set it aside if possible (not possible in this case).

- If needed, read once through to get the whole story in mind (probably not necessary, though pacing is an issue since I splorted this out).

- Highlight any placeholders, missing names, things marked [X], etc.

- Take the story in chunks, either chapters or pieces.

- Work on the scenes that need the most re-writing first.

- Otherwise, start from the back, read to the end, then back up a chunk/chapter read to the end of that. This helps make sure the beginning has everything the end needs.

- Create a list, scene by scene, of what needs to be done (in Word file, or on a white board, or on simple paper).

- Mark the sections you've checked in colored text. This means "checked for things to work on" not "rewritten." Maybe I should have two colors, one for sections I've gone through with an editor's eye, another for scenes that I've fixed.

- Review list. Look for duplicate items to fix all of those at once.


Is that everything? I think I have it.

Writing a Big Bang is different.

The Atlantis Big Bang is my first. I've written four novella-to-novel length stories (Out Of Bounds, Beg Me For It, Primer to the Dark Arts, The Walls Of Jericho), but even though I wrote one of these in six weeks ... a Big Bang has it's own crush of pressure.

I found that because of the length and short time frame I've had to change how I write.

I Changed From This...

1. Normally I write a few scenes (sometimes at disparate points in the story). Get a feel for my characters and story. I'll post these as a WIP and gauge the response.

2. Then I write my outline.

3. I stand back from the story and look at the outline to determine the theme. When I'm doing well, I zero in on the theme right away. I can tie each scene to my theme and throw away anything that doesn't drive the story forward. When I'm not doing well, I stay fuzzy about the theme and it's hard for me to trim the story.

4. At this point I might stop writing and do some research for a while, if I find that I don't know enough to finish my story.

5. Next, I start writing in earnest, writing scenes out of order, whatever is hot at the moment. I treat each individual scene as it's own short story.

6. I have the scenes beta'd as I go. My betas and I work closely, scene by scene, as the story is produced. We polish each one and make adjustments along the way. I'll post the story as as WIP or, in the case of Beg Me For It, post it as separate stories in a series.

7. Throughout I keep standing back, rewriting my outline, rechecking and discussing my theme to see if it's changed or deepened in the writing.

8. Finally, I add transitions to tie it all together. My story usually ends up being a third longer than I first expect.

...To This

I've found that in writing a Big Bang I've had to make a few changes.

1. I write a few scenes as usual, get a feel for my characters, etc., etc. But these aren't posted because a Big Bang is not a WIP. Instead I posted descriptions of the story to gauge audience response.

2. I write the outline. But then I have the outline beta'd before I do any serious writing. I learned this from mad_maudlin and auburnnothenna. Major changes are made in the outline stage.

3. Then I look over the outline and adjust according to my theme as usual (with all the usual difficulties).

4. But I can't stop to do research because of the Big Bang time frame. The deadline is looming.

5. I launch directly into writing my scenes, often out of order. In lieu of research time, I leave placeholders for details to be polished up in the final, put in [X]s for minor character names, brackets for what I need to look up.

6. I end up with a full-length (very) rough draft with all these placeholders and question marks. There is no time to polish individual scenes. My betas read a whole story, swiss cheese though it is, in one bite.

7. I have only a month left to fill in these details.

And now... glug, glug... help.

This is the point where I am. I'm overwhelmed. I've never stared down a massive rough draft like this. It's not how I usually write. I've been poking at this huge 57,000-word text for days and I can't get any traction on editing it.

Help...? I thought I'd just read it beginning to end and write as I go but it's got me beat. My betas aren't getting back to me (maybe they feel the same?). What do I do now?

This morning I had left: six scenes to write.

Wrote three scenes (one very sketchy).

Now I have: six scenes to write.

Okaaaay.

51949 / 40000 words. 130% done!

As many of you know, I've been house sitting. Dog-sitting, but house and car sitting was included.

Yesterday one of the house owners has returned, the husband (very nice guy). I'm still here another week till the rest of the family arrives.

At 3:15 am I gave up the ghost on trying to write five more scenes on my SGA/Pern Big Bang fusion. Count stands at eight to go.

I put the dog in his crate. Crawled upstairs to bed.

Woke at 7:00 am.

He's a CNN first thing in the morning guy.

I ate a peach, took a shower, grabbed the dog and crawled back to bed.

Counts still stands at eight scenes to go.