Heh. I remember going to dinner with my agent's sernior partner and founder of the agency, Don Maass (who, as it happens, wrote a shitload of modern Nancy Drew stuff, including one in which he pulled a Doyle and killed off her boyfriend). I mentioned not being able to write "conventional" mysteries because I don't have the "A to B plus C gets you to the solution" kind of head. He grabbed a napkin and drew a bewildering series of lines that looked like some sort of deranged graph on crack; he then explained that the connect-a-line thing would enable me to do it, hey presto.

I stared it for a moment, and patted his hand. He stared at me for a moment and then said, "Oh! I didn't realise - you're one of those organic writers."

I have no idea what the hell that actually means - I think the term he wanted was fractal or chaos theory or something - but apparently, we're a breed apart or some junk.

As to revision being work? 'swhy I revise as I go along, and it's the reason that every single one of my beta readers gets thanked, by name, at the beginning of each book (Bev, juliana and Betsy are all thanked at the beginning of "Weaver" - FFoSM's list is a bit longer - Nilly and quite a few others get added in for "Matty Groves"). Because I'll ping and say, hey, anyone up for a beta read? Middle section, chapter whatever? And five people, bless 'em, will read and give me feedback as that section's in progress.

That's why I suggested a broad base. It makes it so much easier.

You asked who my audience was for this, and I think it's anyone who's every been involved in an online community, got a date through Match.com, or otherwise met, wanted to meet, or chatted with the other crazy axe murderers online. It's specifically from the perspective of someone overly involved in Mutant Enemy's fandoms, of course, but the common thread in all of these stories is that We Met on the Web.

That's what I thought. I'd asked, specifically, because when presenting to an agent, having that information right there for them puts you one or three or fifty seven steps ahead of the pack: very few people have that down ahead of time (shit, Novel Number Six comes out in two months and I still have no clue who my target audience is supposed to be). So, an agent and an editor will love you with a deep and abiding love if you can tell them that upfront.

But it's also pertinent because in some way, probably well below the surface of your awareness while you're actually writing? Knowing who you think is going to want to buy it and read it and say "HELL yes" is likely going to inform the way you put things down.

So in its way? It's already imposing the best kind of discipline on what seems to be a sister organic method to mine: you know who's going to want to read it, and the language, the information, the sense memories behind the people and the journey, are automatically likely to tilt that way.

That's the way of it, Deb. Trying to explain to someone who has never used the web to communicate with total strangers means I have to do a lot more defining of terms, a lot more boring explanation. The furthest I'm writing down to is the people within this fandom who don't know who I am, but chat with other chatterers at least once a week.

If people want to know what an internet community is, they can read Clay Shirky. And should. He's good at explaining it.

Yep. That's why I suspect following Annie Lamott's particular path might really bog you down. Because it is, it really is, an area of the modern world in which the technical terms alone could swamp people. And what's more, when they start annoying the person doing the writing? The writing gets dull. Trust me, that's how I know when I have a pacing problem - I go back to read it and I kind of have to flog my mind to stay on it. Uh-oh: slooooooow. Not good.

All my nonfiction has been either review work, speechwriting, op-ed essays and the occasional long-ago historical review piece, but I remember knowing, all the way down in the bones, that if I was putting down my take on something that happened, say, during the Albigensian Crusade, the people who were gonna read the sucker probably already knew the basics of the damned crusade, and I didn't need to explain every nut, bolt and siege. In fact, that would have come off as damned insulting. No, it was the events, the people, the headspace, the journey, that I wanted to write. And knowing the likely audience was going to have some degree of sophistication about the field freed me up to just say what I wanted to say, without having to boil the ocean to make a cup of tea.

You'll let me beta more of this as it comes along, I hope?

And me out the door, for homeless catfoodings and me-foodings.

Thanks so much for your generosity on this, everyone.

Allyson, if you want someone to read this that has an arm's length perspective on the fandom stuff, feel free to ping me at my profile addy. I have no idea what happened with ita, and I came late to the online fandom, thereby missing most of what you're probably writing about.

My writing style is just like yours, and revisions are the bane of my existence, but I can critique/edit other people's work without a problem. I'd be happy to help. This is a worthwhile project.

"If ignorance is bliss, you must be organic?" Nah... I'm not sure...mostly I think I have to write the crappy first draft...and write my way into things. Although I tried writing an ending first to my latest project, and well, it's not that kind of story after all, so I'm gonna throw it out. Allyson, I'll be excited to see what you come up with.

massively skipping to the end

Hey GWWriters...sorry I've been absent for the last couple of months. I've missed drabbling a lot.

I should be more present from this point on.

Also, book update--I'm making progress again! Slow, but sure.

Research. How much is too much? Because I've done some, and some things I know, and I'm going to do some more because I'm aiming for that "millions of stories in the naked city" thing that makes my heart beat faster.But I know myself, and I know how much I like people's stories so I could see myself never finishing, looking for one more bit of "color" or something. Telling myself I'll get back to the writing, but never doing it.