just keep going till you get to the end

[melannen]

I spent most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday backpacking on the Appalachian Trail! We did Pen Mar to Route 40, which is about 20 miles, and I have now officially walked all of Maryland on the AT! I have over 40 mosquito bites on my right arm alone, which is a record even for me.

I was really, really ready to come home and have a hot shower and sleep in a real bed by Sunday night, and not go backpacking again for two years (which is how long it's been since last time) but I already want to go out again, and my calf muscles haven't even unknotted yet. And I don't know why! The Appalachian Trail does weird things to the mind.


In other news, I am seriously considering signing up for polybigbang. I have over 10,000 words of that Bruce/Tony poly story already written, so I wouldn't have to stress over wordcount, and current plan is that it only needs four or five more scenes to reach the end, so I really just need a push to finish it. But it also needs a *ton* of revision, and if I used it for a big bang I would have to get a beta reader. Which is probably a good idea anyway, but I almost never use beta readers and have no idea what I'm doing with them.

So... um... before I make up my mind, is there anyone out there who would be willing to beta for a projected <20000 word Avengers movieverse story about Bruce and Tony being geniuses who are bad at life, and also about Betty and Pepper and Jane and Eric being geniuses who are slightly better at life for various reasons, and also about SCIENCE! and ethics and the Other Guy and polyamory and frequent nods to other Avengers fics in this universe that I have not written, and consists almost entirely of telephone conversations? Given that I am really not used to having a beta, am probably really bad at having one, and would want to be able to follow your lead on most of the process?

Anybody?

Comments

[sophia_sol]

I'll volunteer to beta if you want me? Because that fic sounds excellent!

So that you know how I roll and thus whether you would want me, this is what my betaing would look like: you send me fic; I read it and write down both my reactions as I go and my thoughts overall at the end, good and bad and confused; I send the annotated version back so that you know what bits are and are not working for someone who isn't you.

I also, when needed, do SPAG, but I don't think that's something you particularly need in a beta. :D

So if this is something you think would be compatible with what you might want, let me know!


ALSO, go you with the Appalachian trail hiking! I can't personally imagine doing backpacking, because I've done enough canoe tripping that the thought of paring back the essentials EVEN MORE and then CARRYING THEM ALL ON YOUR BACK LIKE ONE EXTENDED PORTAGE sounds kind of awful. But I know what you mean about doing weird things to the mind, because that is me and canoe tripping. Objectively it is not fun, AND YET.

[melannen]

Do you do "I think I see where you were trying to go with that character arc, but you probably need to make it more clear" and "this bit is good but it probably belongs in a different story" and "you have this thread running through the story, maybe it should turn into a major theme" and that kind of thing? Because I think it will need a lot of that.

And I need more SPAG than you might think, and I would love to not have to do my own. :p


And yes! There is nothing particularly fun about it, in fact it is painful and boring and laregly miserable, and not even much in the way of nature that I can't get in the woods behind my house (on the local portion of the trail, anyway), AND YET. Indeed.

[sophia_sol]

Well, I can't promise anything, because I find that the sorts of comments I find myself making depend on the story, but I can definitely keep those things in mind to make sure I do as much of them as possible while betaing!

And frankly I get a lot of satisfaction out of doing SPAG -- I like making things right -- so I'd be happy to do that for you!

[melannen]

That sounds great to me! I'm going to try to add at least one more scene tonight, and if I can manage that, I'll officially sign up for the challenge and see how things go. I may be in touch! :D

[sophia_sol]

Awesome, I'll look forward to it! :D

[verity]

I can testify that sophia_sol is an excellent beta and cheerleader, and a delight to work with! She's my fave!

(My beta services are also on offer, if you're not saturated already.)

[cyprinella]

Woohoo AT! I actually can finally say that I did a bit of it down in the Shenandoah over the weekend. It was mostly unintentional, but it was an easier, if longer, hike than going back the way we came. (oh god I am so out of shape for hills)

[melannen]

I think I did my first stretch of the trail while driving through Smoky Mountains National Park and going about 200 ft to an overlook. :D It somehow still felt like a great accomplishment. Congratulations!

And I am also so out of shape for hills. I just kept in mind that nobody cared how fast I went and I didn't have to keep up with anyone, so I was letting myself sit and rest about every fifty feet on some of the uphills, and that worked fine. (But I noticed I was doing noticeably better even by the second day, so I can't help but wonder what would happen if I pushed on beyond that.)

[cyprinella]

Original plan was for more hiking today, but with the dense fog and my incredibly sore muscles, we decided just to drive the rest of Skyline Drive and then hit wineries around Front Royal. :D

I tend to need at least one recovery day in between bouts right now. Today I was okay once I got warmed up, but every getting up after sitting was an act of will. I will probably be much better tomorrow. Which is pretty similar to my marathon training experience so at least it's predictable.

[melannen]

That is exactly the state I am in right now! :D I should do Skyline Drive sometime, it sounds wonderful.

[cyprinella]

It's quite nice! You may want to print out the hiking trail maps before you go or spend time researching the trails so you know the names because the little map they had you at the entry point isn't very detailed. Thankfully Jason prepared well on that. Unfortunately, he can't control the weather so a lot of the views were fogged in. Probably would have still been good hiking today. Even yesterday was pretty decent, although a bit slippery.

[starfish]

I am also happy to beta; I can give you whatever type and level of crit/feedback you're looking for. Have seen movie twice, comics canon only through osmosis.

The Trail runs right through the Berkshires, we see a lot of hikers this time of year. I have never been inspired to try it myself, but go you!

eta: The telephone conversation format sounds like it could be fun. Kind of like epistolary-fic, but synchronous. Hmm.

[melannen]

Oh, excellent! I will keep you in mind.

The telephone conversation thing is... experimental. I honestly have no idea how it is working. But yeah, the structure of the fic is basically a long-distance relationship over Starkphone, with Tony gradually giving Bruce's number to more and more other people.

[seekingferret]

I'd be happy to beta team science project!

I made a joke this weekend about "hiking the Appalachian Trail" and people looked at me blankly. Have people forgotten Mark Sanford already?

[melannen]

I'd completely forgotten him until you brought it up. :P I remember making a lot of those jokes at the time, though, and still having people not get it.

[isis]

Twas the weekend to go backpacking! \o/ I admit that Maryland's trails hold less allure for me these days, after having lived in New England for four years and then Colorado. But I still have fond memories of the mid-Atlantic section of the AT, where I first went backpacking ever.

[melannen]

I think the Maryland section of the trail is probably one of the best places for beginners - really nice shelters not very far apart, plenty of well-marked and maintained water sources, never get too far from civilization, (can get three NPR stations on my mini radio,) lots of other people around, and yet it still feels like adventure - but yeah, by the same token, it's not necessarily the most splendiferously transcendent hiking experience ever. I should think about somewhere else if I plan another trip - even the Smokies and Shenandoah have some really nice backcountry trails.