Nit-picking and laptop distress
Apr. 22nd, 2010 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaSo, I've taken a break from Skywatch (who knew writing 50k words of YA/intermediate reader steampunk would be so stressful?) to give The Novel one last read-through.
It's been months and months since I last read it, longer than I've ever gone, and it's an interesting experience. On the one hand, it's never gonna be a new story for me. I've been working on this piece for two years. On the other hand, it is a little bit like coming to it fresh--Owen and Fiona haven't lived in my head for ages. My head belongs to Eshe right now; my boy and his unicorn are visiting.
It's somewhat alarming how wordy The Novel is. I keep having to remind myself that it's a very different animal than Skwatch. Skywatch is aimed at a younger audience, and has a completely different tone and style. The Novel is like nothing I've written before or since, and also like very little I read, which I admit is also a little anxiety-inducing. It's high fantasy. Nobody's writing YA high fantasy, or at least, that's what several months of looking like a crazy person in the YA sections of bookstores and libraries has told me. But I know there are people out there who love high fantasy, who also love YA, and who would like to see two great tastes taste great together, instead of having all the HF they read be adult fiction. Sure, YA lends itself to urban fantasy and to weird subgenres (which is one of the reasons I love YA, since I'm all about the weird subgenres), but there's room for interesting work in traditional genres, too. I think!
Though I am amused that the most recent YA book about unicorns that's been published is Diana Peterfreund's Rampant, which is urban fantasy. I haven't read it yet, but I want to.
So far I haven't found any egregious errors in The Novel, just fixed a few typos and made some word-choice changes. Well, there's one scene I have to edit for dialogue, but I think that's pretty good for being halfway through a final reading.
In other, more distressing news, my laptop appears to be literally coming apart at the seams. I was adjusting it to make it easier for me to type today, and it gave an almighty crack! and the screen flipped backward. When I (carefully!) lifted the screen back up, the back and face of my laptop screen had visible separated in one corner.
This is freaking me out! I like my laptop, I want it to last another year or so. It's ancient in laptop terms (four and a half), but it works perfectly. The battery is only three years old and the hard drive only two. I never expected the physical casing to break before the computer stopping working properly.
My screen has been wobbly for a couple of months now, hard to keep in position, but in the last week or so it's gotten worse, culminating in today's distressing incident. Needless to say it's still working (I am typing on it as we speak), but if anyone has suggestions about how to tighten the screen and/or cheaply repair an elderly laptop, I'd be grateful for suggestions.
It's been months and months since I last read it, longer than I've ever gone, and it's an interesting experience. On the one hand, it's never gonna be a new story for me. I've been working on this piece for two years. On the other hand, it is a little bit like coming to it fresh--Owen and Fiona haven't lived in my head for ages. My head belongs to Eshe right now; my boy and his unicorn are visiting.
It's somewhat alarming how wordy The Novel is. I keep having to remind myself that it's a very different animal than Skwatch. Skywatch is aimed at a younger audience, and has a completely different tone and style. The Novel is like nothing I've written before or since, and also like very little I read, which I admit is also a little anxiety-inducing. It's high fantasy. Nobody's writing YA high fantasy, or at least, that's what several months of looking like a crazy person in the YA sections of bookstores and libraries has told me. But I know there are people out there who love high fantasy, who also love YA, and who would like to see two great tastes taste great together, instead of having all the HF they read be adult fiction. Sure, YA lends itself to urban fantasy and to weird subgenres (which is one of the reasons I love YA, since I'm all about the weird subgenres), but there's room for interesting work in traditional genres, too. I think!
Though I am amused that the most recent YA book about unicorns that's been published is Diana Peterfreund's Rampant, which is urban fantasy. I haven't read it yet, but I want to.
So far I haven't found any egregious errors in The Novel, just fixed a few typos and made some word-choice changes. Well, there's one scene I have to edit for dialogue, but I think that's pretty good for being halfway through a final reading.
In other, more distressing news, my laptop appears to be literally coming apart at the seams. I was adjusting it to make it easier for me to type today, and it gave an almighty crack! and the screen flipped backward. When I (carefully!) lifted the screen back up, the back and face of my laptop screen had visible separated in one corner.
This is freaking me out! I like my laptop, I want it to last another year or so. It's ancient in laptop terms (four and a half), but it works perfectly. The battery is only three years old and the hard drive only two. I never expected the physical casing to break before the computer stopping working properly.
My screen has been wobbly for a couple of months now, hard to keep in position, but in the last week or so it's gotten worse, culminating in today's distressing incident. Needless to say it's still working (I am typing on it as we speak), but if anyone has suggestions about how to tighten the screen and/or cheaply repair an elderly laptop, I'd be grateful for suggestions.
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Date: 2010-04-23 03:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-23 04:18 am (UTC)