Anthropology

Description (from story page):
Humans.
Truth or myth? Ancient lost civilization or just an old pony's tale?

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No really, I am. The rewrite is going more slowly than I expected due to some unforeseen shit that I have to deal with IRL. I'm tempted to open the Google Doc up for public viewing just to prove that I'm actually working on it... but that'd open up a whole other can o' worms, I'm sure.

Ahem...

Hear ye, one and all! The rewrite of Absent has begun in earnest!

... finally.

It's much more structured with a definite plot path this time around.

Expect Chapters 1 through 4 within a few weeks... You have been warned.

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I'm making progress on the revision and rewrite, really! I'm still alive, and I'm still working on it. Don't lose hope. I promise the wait will be worth it, in the end.

Over the past month, I've done a lot of research on how to make a story plot airtight. My pre-readers have given me lots of great tips and things to avoid (and mistakes I've made), and I've been exchanging e-mails with a friend of mine from university who's actually a published author herself. Lately, our e-mails have centred around that ever-elusive "airtight plot." Her latest e-mail included something that struck me as so obvious that I completely overlooked it.

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Even with this revised (and far more in-depth) system of plot planning, it appears that I still suck at plotting a novel. Absent is so full of plot holes and universe-destroying discontinuities that it kills the whole point of the story.

The problem is that I've never written fiction before. I'm a scientist who writes lab reports and research proposals. Turns out that physics + mathematics ≠ creative writing.

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I'll just cross 'em off as I get 'em done.

One-sentence story summary. Finished: 17 Jun 2012.
One-paragraph story summary. Finished: 17 Jun 2012.
Character sheets: Finished: 21 Jun 2012.
Twilight Sparkle (main protagonist) Finished: 18 Jun 2012.
Nyx (protagonist) Finished: 19 Jun 2012.

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I like transparency. I like to have access to all possible information at all times so that I can make an informed decision whenever needed. I also assume that you like the same kind of transparency. Given this, I'm going to make the re-planning and rewrite of Absent as transparent as I can without actually spoiling anything. So, like, 20 per cent opaque.

I do this for two reasons:

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I have good news and bad news. I usually like hearing the bad news first, so that's how you're going to get it.

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Things here keep getting better and better. I was hired into my job to replace a woman who went on maternity leave. When I accepted the job, I was told that it would turn into a permanent position doing something else when she came back.

She came back today.

I'm now unemployed... again.

So much for it turning into a "permanent position."

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