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

[elfs]

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.