I posted the new version of chapter 4 and deleted the post with the 2nd half of the chapter. All of chapter 4 is now in one post. I think I'm going to keep doing that with the future chapters. I don't know if I'm going to keep the old comments though. While they're nice to have, I don't know if anyone but me benefits from them.
Now for something maudlin...
I'm not really versed in the writing biz. I used to seriously want to go the traditional route, but I got discouraged really easily. Tonight I decided to poke around again to get info about getting published and want to run home with my tail between my legs in regard to how tough and scary it is to go pro, only problem is I am home and I don't have a tail. I really gotta take my hat off to anyone who writes and submits over and over after all the rejection. I'm never going to go pro. It was my dream to write for money. Now I just want to write and I have trouble with that even. I'm going to stop now because it's late and I'm getting kind of loopy from sleepiness. I'm hoping it rains tomorrow so I can stay inside and maybe work on SS more. Hope to have chapter 5, v.2 out tomorrow.
Some Headway Made
Blerg
I had conveniently forgotten how much I'd changed the chapter breaks during revisions. I'd even added a 'new chapter' within the previously posted sections. It's a combination of new content and rearrangment. I think chapter 4 has most of the new content actually, even though chapter 5 is the 'new' chapter titled 'Volunteering to Help'. There's a Cy, Kyle, Mary scene that is new in chapter 4.
I sort of want to do away with the part 1 and part 2 divisions of the chapters. The reason I did them was because posting a chapter a week was very tough, but I thought I could manage half a chapter. Now that the chapters are radically different and I'm posting them in whole, I think it would be better to keep the chapters all together. I think it would make for a better reading experience. I don't know if I'm odd, but I rather read one long screen than click through a lot of small ones. The only thing that is making me pause from merging the chapter parts is I don't want to loose the comments, which I could save by copying and pasting, but they don't look very good that way. Le sigh, I'll keep mucking about with it.
Sometimes writing makes me feel old.
I'm not sure how this pinged my radar, but I had a bit of dialogue from Rachel in Stalking Shadows that has seriously gone out of date. She says, “Yes, of course, I know because I’ve been secretly stalking Vicky all this time. I have a small shrine to her in my closet. Every night, I burn bubblegum incense and cuddle a Kleenex she once sneezed into while I photoshop her picture onto the covers of Glamour and YM.” I decided to google the titles to see if they were correct. Well guess what everybody, YM ceased publication in 2004. I never read it, but it was one of those glossy magazines that the 'cool' girls were supposed to read. At least I think it was supposed to be cool. Hard to say sometimes with that stuff, but I believe it was. I've changed the line to Glamour and Vogue. Neither of those better go out of business anytime soon or else I'm gonna feel like a dinosaur and will have no idea what to replace them with. I've exhausted my knowledge of style magazines.
I posted the revised chapter 2. I left the end alone with Gran and Mary mentioning remote viewing and the Moores. Poor Tipsy is lost and will not be found in this installment, but I'm told she's bunking with a friendly beagle at a nice home on Maple Street. I figure a little extraneous information won't hurt anything at this point. I may get a wild hair in a few weeks and edit the exchange, but for right now, I'm leaving it alone. I was also able to revise and post chapter 3. There wasn't much to do to it so it was pretty quick. I'm hoping most of the chapters will be that way. It just sucks trying to keep the edits up-to-date between my word document and the blog.
I am planning to post a .pdf of the completed work.
Dear God, when will it end?!
I'm starting to post the new and improved (and completed) Stalking Shadows. I've only posted the first chapter so far because I'm having to read through all of it for the zillionth time to catch things that are wrong. I've removed Jake from the story because his story, which I do want to possibly tell sometime in the future, was not really gelling with the Shadowman's. I really grappled with Jake's story and tried to make it work and that's partly why it took so long for me to get anywhere near to posting the new edition. Right now I'm stuck on the end of chapter 2 and trying to decide to either completely remove the conversation between Gran and Mary about Mrs. Polk (who appeared in the first story) and her new dog Tipsy. I think I might want to leave some mention of the Moores and remote viewing but I don't know if it's germane to the story and may just be rather random to new readers. And even as I type this there's a little voice in the back of my head whispering, "Why not put the letters back in? He could still help find poor little Tipsy." And I tell that little voice to shut up, I've already taken all the letters out of the story (even the new ones that were never published on the site) and have adjusted a lot of the text that referred to Jake, but I'm still finding little threads that were tied to Jake and it's annoying me because he was the B plot, never the A and how did he integrate so thuroughly into the story (maybe because I tried to integrate them. Shows me doesn't it?) But I'm hoping an alternate conversation will come to me for the end of chapter 2. Maybe something that will help the main story. So yes, I am alive and I'm writing, but I'm cranky. And new posts here will be me whining more than likely.
Can't say I didn't warn you.
