Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. Which is one reason having a beta reader – or three, or as many as you can lasso and bribe with chocolate – is critical. More eyes = more chances for someone to say, “Wait, that doesn’t seem right….”
Sometimes what you don’t know is that you’re actually missing a whole scene the reader really, really needs to place what the heck is going on, who are those guys, and why is a glass of mead a really bad sign?
Sometimes, though, hitting a problem spot again and again will at least give you the shape of what information needs to get into the story for everything to make sense. And if you’re lucky (and have helpful betas, betas are gold, I swear), you realize, “Wait. The most effective way to get this in there is not Exposition Dump, but write a new scene… that needs to go in front of what’s already written and will entail several edits of the current stuff to make sure everything blends together. Sigh.”
Which is what I’m in the middle of writing right now. *Crossed fingers, knocks on wood.* Because I finally realized that for this particular confrontation, our heroes would have made several preparations to cut down the damage to innocent bystanders. Including making a Plan C. They really don’t want to use Plan C.
(Of course they’ll have to use Plan C….)
Unrelated note: who’s seen Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, and does anyone have any info, anywhere, on when it might actually be out on DVD? Because I ran into the clip below on YouTube, and the bunnies… may have berserked. A bit. *Halo* (Warning, bloody anime clip, PG-13 at least.)
Knight in Sour Armor Half-Human Hybrid Genius Bruiser vs. Our Zombies Are Different? Yes plz.
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
Can’t say I have, I’ve played beta before, or at least editor, which is a sorely under appreciated job. I had need of one, badly. Very badly. There is a reason I’ve been not writing and am now sticking my toes into drabbles.
Also, rereading Around and also reading some Of Marriage by Olorissta, and just about hit the floor laughing at the idea that Sinbad was the Jedi that founded the Corellian Temple. It was the only way to make him be a Jedi and pull a Revan and Malik.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Betas and editors both are very, very valuable creatures. 🙂 I know myself how easy it is to get so wrapped up in “this is the idea” I don’t realize it didn’t all make it out onto paper.
(Goes to check out fic.) …*Snrk* Sinbad so would.
LikeLike
Link?
LikeLike
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8451358
LikeLike
Thanks.
LikeLike
Of course it’s Plan C… unless even that went horribly, horribly wrong. At which point, the only option might well be making sure no one knows which way is up, and pray you’re better at improvising than the opponent is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
St. George’s medals might help….
LikeLike
“Do you have a Plan M?””Hardison dies in Plan M” *Snrk* XD I’ve been a beta and editor along with a writer, and having to be all three for yourself? Yikes. More power to everyone. (Has no beta reader and a Bleach/Anita Blake crossover idea *dies*).
LikeLiked by 1 person
…Hopefully this is early Anita Blake, before the insanity set in. Otherwise – Ichigo, burn everything to the ground!
LikeLike
And then set Benihime on the ashes, it’s the only way to be sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bankai!
LikeLike
Eh, I threw the timeline into a wood chipper and just picked out the bits I liked, so yeah, I guess you could say it’s early Anita Blake. 😉 Otherwise Ichigo would conquer the world through the Power of Common Sense, and what fun would that be except in a crack!fic? ^.^
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nothing wrong with a good crackfic. 😉
LikeLike
I wonder how long before that one program will be converted to helping fiction authors figure out the shape of what’s missing? Because a few years ago, someone developed a program that did that for scientists. What the program did was scan through all those uncountable quantities of research papers that everyone keeps referencing but no one can keep track of, and look for “huh, there’s a missing spot here”, and then the program writes its own “research paper” that says “here’s the shape of what’s missing. Go research it, human minions.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
*Snrk* Would be an interesting program!
LikeLike
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is currently available on Amazon prime streaming And the DVD and Blu-ray will come out some time. It’s licensed and in production with some theatracal releases of episodes happening now ish. But the DVD release date has not been announced.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Streaming’s not a good option for me. Drat.
Thanks for the info!
LikeLike
*add to List of Things to Watch*
LikeLike
Re: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
Ok, so the clip is from episode 4 (thank you, Prime membership), and… they are vambies? Zomphires? Groan a lot, shamble, and walk in hoards, but they grow fangs, bite the jugular, and live on blood. (Well, not the MAIN characters)
I have mixed feelings about this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
*Halo* Don’t you want to see SG-1 in a zpoc? With killer rescue trains?
…Yes, my bunnies go for interesting violence/bio-horror when stressed. Ubel Blatt, Parasyte, RE2, now this….
(Maybe I just want to see Sam’s face when she has to lecture someone else about taking apart shiny tech….)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Honestly? I want to see Janet twitch at shambling corpses growing fangs, metal cages around glowing hearts, and fused colonies.
I have a feeling I’d need popcorn and a notebook to write down the really/inventive/ cursing she’d do.
Thats BEFORE she found out Ikoma basically strangled himself to stop the spread of a viral infection. (And, I highly suspect that the guy i think is the Big Bad experimented on people to get a Kabaneri in a way that would make the Tok’ra proud.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Janet will definitely twitch. A lot. For two big reasons. 1) They think they know who’s responsible for this, and wish they could kill that character again. 2) Janet’s going to be able to identify there’s a nonphysical component involved in the whole mess – both in infection, and in why blood keeps Kabaneri alive.
Jack: That is not a happy doc….
(Currently tossing ideas on this with some email pals, as bunny-treats to get them to keep going on Seeds. Mwah-hah-ha….)
LikeLike
Have watched another episode. Big bad confirmed. Janet would have WORDS and Big bad wouldn’t just get the cold probes, he’d get the special ones she keeps in the fridge.
Jack dies of cultershock, Sam wants to play with the pretty steampunk toys, and Daniel is absorbing cultural… everything like a sponge. Tealc wants one of all the weapons and 5 uninterrupted minutes with Big Bad. He has /issues/ with (spoiler below the next few lines because I’m on my phone
People pretending they’re heroic and helping while tossing their people to the zomphires and conducting human experimentation just to see what happens and if it’s useful to their goals.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
That Guy definitely deserves a stompin’.
Daniel would be no little terrified. For example:
Jack: “…Did the nice friendly samurai guy just hand us all shaped suicide charges?”
Daniel: Gulps. “I think he was trying to be thoughtful, Jack.”
Sam: They have engineers….
And there’s no way Teal’c can pass an inspection. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person