Fugue Update

I'd be lying if I said I was actively working on "Fugue" right now (and I think I'm already in deep trouble for softening reality for the admittees last week ;-) Just wait until they get here in August, heh, I'm going to have to go undercover). Anyway, back to "Fugue"...

I have the big chunk of a beta Liz did on the first 3/4s of it so that's been pretty much done and Liz working through the last quarter now (yes, it's a long story). So at least there's progress being made at that end. Heard from Monica today about "Verita da Cuore" and "Fugue" as well and we're going to talk on Sunday evening; apparently, she's taking the train from DC back up to NYC and will call from there. I've never had a beta over the phone before, so this is mildly interesting. And here I thought AIM betas were the end all and be all of betas...

Sometimes, I wonder how people beta. Una told me that she and Matt Edwards met in a coffee shop every month or so to go over their fics. Most of "Lines in the Sand" was a 'live' beta - Liz and I spent hours on AIM every night with that baby. She'd tell me what would work and what wouldn't and I'd fix it right there on the spot and she'd either approve it or not. Then there's the regular email style betas which are either line by line or general paragraphs details plot holes or different directions to go.

I think it really depends on the mood of the people. I was on a time crunch for "Lines in the Sand," so the best way to do it was the AIM method (and bless Liz, for putting up 800k of text - she is the only beta to have lasted from beginning to end of that darn thing). But usually, I like to take my time, get a couple opinions (a couple, I think after three, it's starting to get into "too many cooks" category), think it over myself, and then see what happens.

But I think I've been procrastinating way too much lately on this fic and I realized that when I was going through my inbox today and realized that yeah, people were actually waiting for "Fugue." So, on that note, I promise to get "Fugue" out before the end of March.

Unless the ASC Awards kill me first. Which is very possible. I really should not be insufficiently reluctant. But there you have it. Insufficiently reluctant.