You know, with the exception of one deadly and unpredictable midget, this girl is the smallest cargo I've ever had to transport. Yet by far the most troublesome. Does that seem right to you?

Early ,'Objects In Space'


The Great Write Way, Act Three: Where's the gun?

A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.


Anne W. - Oct 21, 2009 12:49:33 pm PDT #2610 of 6690
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.

Congratulations to Barb and unofficial congratulations to Amy!


Gudanov - Oct 21, 2009 12:50:29 pm PDT #2611 of 6690
Coding and Sleeping

It's wonderful to hear all the good news.

I'm hoping to get to the soul crushing rejection phase at some point. Right now, I'm just trying to find revision time and hoping for feedback when I open up my inbox (alas, none recently).


Allyson - Oct 21, 2009 12:59:00 pm PDT #2612 of 6690
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica

and YA just happens to be one of them

oh please oh please oh please!


Beverly - Oct 21, 2009 5:07:56 pm PDT #2613 of 6690
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.

Barb! I'm so happy for you! Eeeee!!


Gudanov - Oct 22, 2009 4:47:38 am PDT #2614 of 6690
Coding and Sleeping

Still on 22, I'm pretty sure I can finish tonight though. Then I need to knock out a critique and it's off to 23. I'm in the fun middle section now. Big events in the plot come pretty much every chapter now.


Gudanov - Oct 22, 2009 5:48:30 am PDT #2615 of 6690
Coding and Sleeping

Also, I caught up to my current revision location while listening this morning. The last four chapters sounded better, so that's encouraging. As a whole my listening experience has told me it's not there yet, but I'm a long ways from being done revising.


Barb - Oct 22, 2009 6:07:54 am PDT #2616 of 6690
“Not dead yet!”

Gud, how distracting has the text to audio voice been for you? I've done it a couple of times with my work when I want to hear specific bits of dialogue, in particular, but no matter how much I play around with the speeds and voices to get something approximating what I hear in my head, it's still so obviously a computer voice I wind up focusing on that rather than the words themselves.


Gudanov - Oct 22, 2009 6:14:27 am PDT #2617 of 6690
Coding and Sleeping

There are stretches that are amazingly good, but there are others where it's really off. It's a bit distracting, but it works better than I thought. I don't have much time, so being able to listen during commuting dead time is useful for me.

I'm using the AT&T natural voice 'Audrey'.


Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Oct 22, 2009 6:18:18 am PDT #2618 of 6690
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"

I'm using the AT&T natural voice 'Audrey'.

It definitely helps to find a program where you don't find the voice too distracting. I have software called Read&Write which is fairly customizable, in terms of speed, pitch etc. That's helpful.

Also, getting used to the voice helps. Being dyslexic, I read a lot of my books, journals etc via computer programs. Familiarity makes the computerized voices sound a bit more natural.


Gudanov - Oct 22, 2009 6:22:08 am PDT #2619 of 6690
Coding and Sleeping

One problem I have is that I'm trying to compare how my stuff stacks up to audiobooks I download from my library, just in terms of flow and dialogue. It's not easy to compensate for text-to-speech vs. an actual person.

I have learned that attributions and physical beats are sometimes awkward. I reuse words in the same paragraph too often. A lot of my sentences have more words than needed. I have a lot of work to do. On the plus side, I think the story is good and my feedback seems to support that so far. I think I have something that can be good, but I need to work on my craft.