elfs | In which our hero attempts to make Jay break out in hives.

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:

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.