dS-c6d big bang Beta and Resources Post

[feroxargentea]

The next Big Bang chat is four weeks away, on 30th June. In the meantime, how are you all getting along with your primary fanworks? Comment below to tell us:

• where you're up to
• any help you need (beta? cheerleading? anything else?)
• any resources you've found that might help the rest of us!

Also, please comment below if you can volunteer to beta or cheerlead! Don't forget to include:

• how people can contact you
• which media you can beta (fic, art, podfic etc)
• which fandoms/characters/pairings you can beta
• the sort of beta you can offer, if applicable (story-level editing, line editing etc)
• any categories of fanwork you're NOT happy to beta

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

I've been deliberately putting off starting on recording, in an effort to learn from past experience that stringing out the recording/editing process over too much time ends up making me feel like I'm losing consistency in acting & recording sound levels. (And also, I've been working like a mad person on some projects with earlier due dates.)

But I'm all set to leap into action when the self-appointed time comes! :)

[feroxargentea]

That's great to hear! I can't wait to find out what it's going to be.

(It's funny -- I was lying awake the other night, listening to the songbirds, which currently start up at about 3am and go on till about 11pm, and wondering how a podficcer would deal with it. Move house, perhaps.)

[desireearmfeldt]

There is certainly a lot of chirping going on outside my house at the moment.

I feel like the birds have not been too much of a problem for me in the past; I think closing the windows and shutting myself in the closet must be enough to muffle out the sound. It's the bloody airplanes, motorcycles, leaf-blowers, and outdoor construction projects that are my problem. :)

[mekare]

Oh man, I know. We have a neighbour who keeps running the motor of his car while he works on it every weekend. So annoying!

[feroxargentea]

Ugh, how much tinkering can an engine need? At least with leafblowers and lawnmowers, it's new leaves/growth they're tackling.

[comatosebadger]

I've been chugging away at mine whenever I can.
Haven't gotten as much done by this point as I'd hoped to, but I'm super determined to keep going and finish it!
Don't have much spare time this year (doing my Masters), but I want to finish this thing so badly! :P

[feroxargentea]

Good for you! Your degree has to come first, but you can get that art done too! *waves pompoms*

[mekare]

I‘m still dithering over colour choices. I did two versions of the Fraser alone piece but I like neither of them. Then went back to the screenshots and will do a third version tonight which will hopefully have the effect I want.

I practised Fraser with a Mermay art piece.

Resources: navaan is hosting Write Every Day so maybe that can help some of our writers as a daily check-in.

I‘ve done some cheerleading with clarasteam and I‘m happy to do so for others. Just PM me or write an email mekareDOTartATgmail.com.

[feroxargentea]

Fingers crossed you hit the combination of colours you like tonight.

Re: email - I might do that! An email loop might be helpful, just as a reminder that the challenge is still here and I need to remember to WRITE STUFF - not every day, because that's not going to happen, but *enough* days.

[mekare]

Yup, remembering that the challenge is ongoing is the biggest thing, especially since the deadline seems so faaaaaar away :-)

[feroxargentea]

I dunno, it did seem far away, and then suddenly half the time has disappeared without half of my fic getting written...

[mekare]

I know what you mean. I thought I'd be much further along by now. :-/

ETA: Perfect Stephen icon :-)

[feroxargentea]

Ten weeks to go! We can do this, right?

[mekare]

Yes, we absolutely can.

*three cheers for productivity*

I‘m going to start on my next colour study right after breakfast.

[ride_4ever]

I'm awaiting the late-summer complementary claims post with a fair amount of trepidation, having said that for the first time I'll try to do art instead of fic.

Meep.

[mekare]

Oh cool! What kind of art do you want to do? Digital/traditional/manip/...?

[ride_4ever]

Undecided...I have never done any of those before, which is why I have such trepidation. (I've always done poetry before for my dSC6D complementary, and this time I thought I'd attempt stepping outside my comfort zone...but I might still panic and fail.)

[mekare]

That‘s brave of you, go you! An idea: why not head over to drawesome and do some of our biweekly challenges as a warm-up, just to see how you like traditional art? It‘s a very supportive community, I promise, and there are no real deadlines. You can do all of the past challenges and post them, even as a comment to the challenge entry if you‘re not comfortable making a whole separate post.

If you find you‘d rather do digital, drawesome definitely has people working on digital stuff who can answer all sorts of questions for you (I rarely do digital). There are some cool resource posts as well.

[ride_4ever]

Hmmm...I'll consider the drawsome challenges. TYK for the suggestion.

I'm also considering doing something more of a craft than an art, perhaps something beaded.

[feroxargentea]

Which fandoms were you thinking of doing? Or does it just depend on what primary pieces are available?

[ride_4ever]

I'm confused about this question. Can't even have which fandom(s) in mind until the primaries are described in the claims post.

[feroxargentea]

Ha! I suppose what I meant was "of the various fandoms for which people have said they might be making primary pieces, which ones would you want?"

Altho', looking at the signups so far, they are pretty much all due South.

[ride_4ever]

To quote RayK: "Hey, me, I'll try anything". (I'm open to dS or any C6D.)

[clarasteam]

I've signed up for Complementary but don't know yet if anyone will be doing Primary in a fandom I can write in. I am writing a thing for S&A that is longer than usual for me but I don't think it's going to hit 20k :) mekare has been cheering me on, which has been great. (I think I'm going to miss the next chat, sadly.)

[feroxargentea]

A S&A fic would be wonderful! I will cheer you on in hopes of it qualifying :)

So far all the primary sign-ups are due South, I think, although you never know what people will actually hand in.

[clarasteam]

thank you for the cheering on, which is very welcome.

I've taken stock of what I have written so far for this WIP, and decided that I need to keep to my Complementary signup and not try to convert it to a Primary. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else produces!

[mekare]

It has been great reading your ideas! And the snippet too.

[clarasteam]

thank you! *beams*

[serialscum]

howdy dowdy

I'm about 6000 words deep into my fic. I've got some academic commitments at the moment (hell, this whole summer), so that's why there's not much going on right now. Just found my footing yesterday after a creative slump, so I might get even more done in a short amount of time while giving my studies the attention they deserve. verushka70 is my sensational beta for this thing; I'm also helping her out with her own story.

Here's a great editor site: http://www.hemingwayapp.com/

I don't take all of the advice it gives me, but it definitely helps me cut down on adverbs (instead making you opt for more precise verbs) and points out ungodly long sentences, among other things. Also good if you tend to repeat conjunctions when you can instead switch it up a little.

[feroxargentea]

6000 words is a great start, esp as you already did lots of research :) And huzzah for being out of the slump!

Hemingway Editor looks fun - thanks for the link! Hmm, you know what would be handy - an extra colour to highlight accidental unAmericanisms. That would save my betas from shouting at me a lot.

[serialscum]

Thanks! Just got out of another slump yesterday night. I found my way again a few days after getting to catch a break from my courses. Gonna have to rush like hell, though; lagging behind on schedule.

I let LibreOffice handle those unAmericanisms for me, haha. What would I do without English dialect options?

[feroxargentea]

My spellcheck deals with spelling variations, but it can't catch words with different meanings, or phrases that don't exist at all in US english (so many of these, ugh)

[mekare]

Yay 6000 words is a lot! Yours was the super complicated one, right? I hope you get a lot done after your slump.

[serialscum]

It sure is. I'm getting there, hahaha

[mekare]

That's good to hear! *cheering and confetti*

[mific]

So my process has been:
- panic about doing sfa
- do a concerted WW2 research session, leave multiple tabs open
- panic about how much research a person could do about World War FUCKING Two!!
- decide I don’t need to do any real research, I’ll just wing the details
- outline 7 pic clusters and ideas for the context/fic to go with
- worry that seven’s a weird number.
- BUT NOT IN GAME OF THRONES! (Wrong fandom)
- get distracted again by other more pressing deadlines.
.

[mekare]

Hey, an outline of 7 pieces is great! Let me know if you need anything (cheering, talking it out or whatever).

I am still not really sure about my colours, I'm going to send you a couple of pieces for a second opinion, okay? Should I PM you and give you access to a locked post or should I email?

[feroxargentea]

Sometimes winging it is the sensible choice, especially when you already know the basics.

Yeah, other deadlines, other stuff, so hard to find enough time! But having a solid outline is a good start.

[bingeling]

I've decided which of my vid ideas I want to make, I've finished plucking all the clips from the episodes that I could use, I've edited my song choice. Next up is actually making the vid. xD

[feroxargentea]

Ooh! That sounds promising :) :)