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Jay Lake (
jaylake), has gone in six years from having no fingerprint on the publishing world to having six novels and 200 short stories out there in one form or another. His is a shining example that someday I might emulate. He recently praised Justine Larbalestier's method for writing a novel with a single quibble. He says, "Her spreadsheet thing would make me insane."
Well, I went one better. Since I use emacs and a very customized para-outline-mode anyway, there's metadata at the top of all of my "in progress" stories, and I figured, hey, all that metadata adds up, so why not use it usefully? Monday night I wrote my little Ruby script to extract the metadata from the headers, chapter order from the filenames, and filesize from the file system, and viola: my computer generates my spreadsheet for me. Screw word counts, this is where the real progress indicators lie:
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Well, I went one better. Since I use emacs and a very customized para-outline-mode anyway, there's metadata at the top of all of my "in progress" stories, and I figured, hey, all that metadata adds up, so why not use it usefully? Monday night I wrote my little Ruby script to extract the metadata from the headers, chapter order from the filenames, and filesize from the file system, and viola: my computer generates my spreadsheet for me. Screw word counts, this is where the real progress indicators lie:
Chapter | Title | PoV | Count | Action | Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | First Encounter | Rhiane | 4084 | NS | Rhiane & Illonca meet, Polly & Khrystyne dating |
1 | The Last To Know | Rhiane | 4877 | NS (Girls kiss) | Rhiane is assigned to the Pendorians. Polly confesses her crush. |
2 | You Just Don't Get It. | Rhiane | 5847 | NS (Girls kiss) | Rhiane and Illonca finally have a round of gentle petting. |
3 | Not The Heat She Wanted | Rhiane | 6663 | NS (Girls kiss) | Rhiane survives a terrorist attack. |
4 | The Moment To Wait For. | Rhiane | 6300 | F/F | Rhiane and Illonca finally fall madly in bed. |
5 | Why Wait | Polly | 6399 | D/F | Rhiane & Polly have a date. |
6 | Polly & Saul | Polly | 4253 | D/M | Polly & Saul meet |
7 | Expose | 536 | NS | ||
8 | Tau | Polly | 5473 | D/F, D/F | Polly has a bad night, meets Zia, thinks she's blackmailing Zia |
9 | Press Release | Eha | 1649 | Rhiane takes Eha Sigma to the Realm | |
10 | Conscience | Polly | 2651 | D/F | Polly has a crisis of conscience until Zia cures her of it. |
11 | Height | Polly | 2915 | D/F | Zia & Polly, good sex, Dove listens. |
12 | Voyeuse. | Dove | 2596 | D/F,voy | Dove watches Polly and Zia. |
13 | Word gets out. | Rhiane | 5365 | F/F, zero G. | Rhiane talks to Butler. Dinner in the Concourse: Rhiane, Illonca, Zia, Polly, Dove. Rhiane & Illonca. |
14 | Provocation. | Saul | 2804 | M/D, anal, rough | Saul & Khrystyne. |
15 | Seductrice | Dove, Polly | 6862 | D/F, D/F/F, 1st, anal | Dove tries to seduce Polly, is caught by Zia |
16 | Politics | Kacea | 4518 | NS | Kacea converses with Butler, San Txema, and Tempany, and comes to a decision about her fate. |
17 | Midpoint | Polly | 6901 | D/F, D/F/F, D/M, M/F | Orgy at Zia's Place! Zia, Polly, Saul. Saul, Khrystyne. Saul, Khrystyne, Polly, Zia. Dove, Khrystyne. Saul, Dove. Khrystyne, Polly, Zia. Polly, Zia |
18 | The Twins | Dove | 6648 | F/M/M | Dove meets the Twins, who seduce her. |
19 | New Worlds | Rhiane, Polly, Dove | 4476 | F/F, D/F anal toys, | Rhiane & Illonca celebrate arrival; Zia takes Polly's anal virginity; Dove finds the Twins irresistible |
20 | Senatorial Decisions | Kacea Alfan | 3695 | NS | Kacea Alfan negotiates the Letter of Intent |
21 | Risky Invitations | Dove | 6090 | F/M/M | Dove considers an offer from the Twins, and wrestles with what that means for her relationships with her peers. |
22 | Stable Places | Rhiane | 104 | F/F | Rhiane and Illonca take a tour of their new Embassy, guided by Reff Ng. |
23 | Polestar: Vacation | Mava | 606 | F/D | Mava meets Aderyn, and starts on an adventure among the Sterling starsystems. |
24 | Seed | Polly | 134 | F/D | Polly discovers a strange surprise in the Sterling genome. |
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 06:02 pm (UTC)