A few random things

[loaded_march]

First!  I have not fallen off the face of the planet!  I've... been avoiding the interwebs by immersing myself in fic.  Also, it was the long weekend; I totally turned off my brain for the vast majority of it.

Second!  Part #10 is still in beta -- and although I have an ETA, I am not sharing it, because Things^TM happen, so it might be a bit longer.  Plus, I still have to go through it and fix it.  And believe me, there's a lot of fixing to do.  No, I am not sharing word count, even though someone came close to guessing how many words there are.  I am denying it totally until I have it posted.

Third!  I finally have a title for Part 10.  Amazingly, I have a title for part 11, too.  And the opening scenes to part 11, which I want to start writing right now, but I have a fest fic to write.

Fourth!  Speaking of fest fics -- I am in serious need of someone to Brit Pick my merlin_horror fic.  The fact that I'm coming to this realization now, when I'm only two parts into the fic, is a pretty bad thing.  So I am putting up my official Craigslist ad here:

Wanted:  One poor sap wonderful human being willing to beta a horror fic set in a modern AU.  Specific needs: British slang, location descriptions, and help me I'm lost in London address fixes.  Some knowledge of the medical profession would be helpful but not required.  Should be willing to answer frantic and frequent rare and occasional PMs with random questions as I work my way through the fic, because all these is there even slang for this in the UK? notes I've left myself all over the documents are driving me freaking crazy.

Fifth! I...  I totally had a fifth.  I swear.  I seem to have misplaced it.  I'll get back to you on this one.

Comments

[sp-owl.livejournal.com]

You're so funny. I love to read your thoughts!

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

I usually have running commentary in my head that comes out, especially when I'm around someone else. The girl that I'm training right now? She's in hysterics half the time, because apparently, she thinks I'm funny too :P

[fuckyeah.livejournal.com]

...You're two parts in your merlin_horror fic already? I'm not surprised, but now I feel lazy. :P

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

I should probably define what I call a "part", which turns out is pretty fluid depending on my definition at the time. More accurately would be "sections", where there seems to be a pattern of three sections per chapter.

I think I'm up to 1.5 chapters now. Silly thing, why is it moving so slooowww

[fuckyeah.livejournal.com]

Compared to mine (which is only a few sentences so far) that's amazing! *cheers you on*

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

I just want to know how it is that you write these ridiculously long fics all the time? My PL fic ended up at 100k once it was fully beta read and revised (it had reached 105k but then I rewrote the entire epilogue chopping it from 6k to 2k). I feel exhausted now that it's done. Grant you I wrote it in marathon chunks between illness and injury but still.

BTW, your PL is in my queue to be read but as I was working on mine up to the very last second I am just starting to read everyone else's PL. Did your artist ever get up and running? I have to confess, I'd have been lost without my artist, she was my rock from the minute she stepped in (which was about 29k into the thing) right up to that last second before posting!

For the first time, I cursed AO3 to the 9 Hells and was grateful for LJ's more reliable coding system. Even if I had to split it into 13 parts plus an addendum and Master Post, it actually proved far less difficult to code and embed the art at LJ. Linking each chapter to the next was tedious but not that bad, if I hadn't been frantic to get it done instantly (cuz I had just barely finished posting the first-part-last Master post when it was 11pm and I was forced to make the post to the PL page to meet the deadline. Honestly? We were revising the fic up till 9pm that night and while my partner in crime was whipping the shit outta the last parts of Part3, I was making dummy copies of the first two parts (8 posts) so I could then just copy and paste them into the correct, reverse order for the post. Technically when I went live, you could only access part 1. Yikes!And of course, someone was waiting on my post cuz they knew it was coming and before I could start linking the chapters I was already getting messages: Where's part 2? LOL, needless to say I was up til 6am finishing up linking and tagging the LJ chapters and fighting with AO3 to accept my codes and stop inserting their own insane ones every time I tried to edit anything. So that was Saturday into Sunday morning and I spent most of Sunday on my face! BUT...I got it done :D

My hat is doubly off to you for rattling off these super long bits of fic like they are nothing.

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

I think it's because I think in terms of ridiculously long stories? To be honest, I'm not really sure. I don't write short well, and even when I do, my short stories want to grow up to become novels.

I'm afraid my artist has been swamped with work and unfortunately hasn't been able to catch up with the artwork. There is one piece hotlinked in the AO3 fic, though. But to give credit where credit is due, I don't think I would have posted the story if it hadn't been for her talking me down the ledge.

I don't know how people (yourself included) post big fic to LJ -- chopping it up to fit the character count limits would've made me DIE INSIDE.

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

Dang it! LJ ate my original comment, so if another one shows up later, you'll know why!

I didn't find cutting the three parts of my fic into "chapters" for LJ to be all that painful. I just figured out what the character limit was when posting Part 1 and since the other 2 parts were all around the same length, I cut them all into the same number of chapters. Honestly I just started with the whole section, then cut it in half to see if that fit and when it didn't, I cut it in half again. When that worked, I just broke each chapter off at the nearest line-break to that quarter section so that cutting the thing up didn't really interrupt the flow of the story much. Plus I got to use more of Alby's pretty line-breaks that way since I put one at the top and bottom of each "chapter" ;-)

AO3 on the other hand, what a nightmare! Yes, it let me post each part as a whole but have you ever embedded a lot of art into a draft at AO3 before? You can't really edit it once it's saved! You have to delete it and redo it entirely. Even tiny adjustments will cause the code over the whole thing to go insane! All of a sudden code you never inserted appears out of nowhere and screws up all your carefully placed art! Also, anything I tried to center got bunged. Ugh! It took me three times as long to get the coding perfect on AO3 as it did on LJ. So in that respect, LJ was actually easier to use even if I did have to cut a three part story into 3 parts with 4 chapters each.

Is your artist planning on finishing the art even though it can't officially be part of the PL post? I love all the art that came out of this fest! I've been able to peek at all the artwork even though I've only had time to read 2 stories. It would be nice for both of you if you could still add the art to story later on.

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

(late comment is late, sorry)

Yeah, that is one thing that I wasn't a fan of with AO3. You can edit your first chapter, but you can't edit the later chapters -- at least not if they were in a do-not-post-until... holding pattern. It got frustrating for me, too.

I think my artist is planning on finishing the art, but I know she is swamped with work right now, so I have no idea when that will happen. I will add the art as it is done and point a big arrow toward it :)

[xthursdaynextx.livejournal.com]

I can Britpick for you if you're still looking for someone. I'm not a medical expert but I do know London and slang.

(Repost because I didn't even realise my phone had logged me out until I got the 'your anonymous comment has been screened' message.)

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

(I deleted the screened comment :) )

And, thank you! I appreciate it! I will PM you with a few things once I have a decent list of things to ask!

[quietomega.livejournal.com]

Hello again! I've similarly dropped off the face of the earth since your last, last update since school went insane on me. Glad to hear that your hell weeks went by okay! I wish I could say the same for mine, but at least they're over for now.

Hm, not up for guessing your word count, other than that it'll lead to being a wonderful and enormous distraction when the insanity I'm dealing with gets too much. And I'm already anticipating a great need. And YEY! Glad to hear that you've a title for this part and the next, and an opening scene!

It might be the quarters I've been lurking in when I can, but the Internet seems to have been a very dark, very depressing place lately, so glad to hear that things are great with you

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

I noticed your dropping off the face of the earth. Don't do that! You're not allowed to do that!

*hugs*

It'll be a little while longer before part 10 goes up, but I hope it'll be worth the wait :)

[tambear13.livejournal.com]

Ha! I love reading your thoughts, always give me a giggle :)

But, you're going to do it again aren't you? *sighs* You posted The Play's the Thing a few days before I had a huge midterm, and then I was stuck trying to decide weather to study or read -- reading won out! Groundwork was okay... BUT First Contact my end of term exams were starting in the next few days. You have impeccable timing for letting me doss off :P And now... Part#10, the start of my final term when I have to knuckle down and get my lab work done. *sighs*
And that's only LM!! :D Can't wait to read it though! I'm very excited, far too excited, like a puppy on acid! ♥

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

I'm... going to try very hard not to?

When are your exams? And good luck!

[castmeaway.livejournal.com]

should I go psycho psychic on you again and guess your *final* word count? I would do it here, but that seems a bit counterproductive to your denial ;) ;) ;)

*hugs*

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

DENIAL :P

[patria-mori.livejournal.com]

I've just moved to London, so if you need location info or pictures I can try and get those for you. It might take a day or two though since I'm not sure what my work schedule is going to look like, but let me know if you need something.

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

I don't think I would need actual photos -- I just need to remember every now and then that Google Earth sometimes has photos of different places (but I keep forgetting that I have Google Earth), so I can use those. But inside those places? I dunno! I am not sure how important they would be.

But I might still ask you for location suggestions that fit a criteria, if that's do-able for you?

Thank you!

[patria-mori.livejournal.com]

I'm up for a challenge.

[gattodoro.livejournal.com]

Poor sap here very happy to help with 'Brit Picking'. I live/work in London and have prior form as a Beta(& writer), though not in this Fandom. I'm not a medical professional but have plenty of first-hand experience of the NHS (National Health Service) as a patient to call on.

Anything I can do to help seems like scant payback for your marvellous stories.

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

Ohh, thank you! I will definitely take you up on that, especially with your first-hand experience. I am finding that my use of certain hospital-related jargon is stupidly heavily on the Americanisms. For example, in the USA, some cops call an ambulance a "bus". Is there similar slang in the UK?

Brit Speak

[gattodoro.livejournal.com]

Hi there, the only slang term for an ambulance that I've heard in the UK is 'meat wagon', though that is very non politically correct and therefore a bit old-fashioned, but I can imagine it being used by someone in a context where some gallows humour comes into play e.g. a very messy murder or fatal accident.

Two resources that you might find useful below. The first is a web page for a now defunct TV show called 'The Bill' explaining some of the jargon and acronyms used (think British version of Hill Street Blues, she says thus showing her age *rolls eyes*). 'The Old Bill' is itself a nickname for the police.

http://thebill.wikia.com/wiki/Police_lingo

The second covers Medical slang terms, including the dying art of insulting acronyms used by doctors to describe patients. it comes from a series of articles published in the British Medical Journal http://www.translationdirectory.com/glossaries/glossary224.php#Terms . I particularly like 'UBI' (Unexplained Beer Injury). See also 'Hasselhoff' and 'TEETH'.

Hope this helps.

'Gatty'

Re: Brit Speak

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, these are awesome resources! Once I have more of my fic done, I will dive in those to see if I can fix as much of my errors as I can.

I am trying to figure out how I can use UBI in the fic now...

Thank you!

[giraffatrolli.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to get the feeling that writing is akin to breathing for you, which is a huge life-bonus for the rest of us. Especially since your fics are like magic http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UP8IlI3lrfU/UDU6slsqthI/AAAAAAAAAWs/Wc4HqVP3CUg/s1600/holy+spirit+breath.jpg :)

Yay on all the progress, and hopefully life stays calm. :)

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

It just feels wrong when I'm not writing!!

[giraffatrolli.livejournal.com]

"Really, oh how very, um, unfortunate..."
#distracts you with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AT4_rocket_launcher.jpg, while discreetly feeding plot-bunnies# :)

[bookscrazygirl.livejournal.com]

Lol, no worries, you aren't the only one who fell off the internet ^_^.

Glad to hear that LM is progressing, could we entice you to share the title at least?

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

No title for you! You keep feeding my damn plot bunnies!

and to be honest? By now, I've forgotten. I have to find the scrap of paper it's on.

[bookscrazygirl.livejournal.com]

Aww, but your plunnies are so cute~

And now I have a mental image of you all ready to post part 10, only to go, 'Title, title, wait, what was the title again?'

Cue frantic searching for piece of paper. ^_^

*Sneaks more food to the plunnies*