All pertinent stories, essays and other materials related to the Roseverse, the setting of Land of the Roses
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Cloudy. Rainy. Cold and miserable, with a slight touch of gloom.
I can chalk this one up to my inexperience. I've only been interviewed once, and in that one they practically begged me to take the offer. I tried to go with what felt natural to someone with anxiety issues, rather than copy the interviews I've seen on TV. I feel I would probably show my hand in such a high stakes interview, personally.Yes, I'm seeing the agency in this version of Andrea right away. Lord knows we've been over that several times, so I'm guessing this Andrea is going to be more driven in key ways. The job interview does seem to go a bit too well, overall. It kind of comes across as a little bit canned - most of the interviewers I've ever been in front of have tended to keep poker faces or respond with blandly positive comments that don't really give away anything.
If only you could have seen me spend a week trying to figure out how to describe goth clothing. I don't think it can actually be done. What I intended with her outfit was that it wasn't super professional or fancy, but by no means does she look like a homeless vampire. Also, this may be a consequence of how I cut off one of Andrea's lines:But in any case, if there's one thing I'd change, it's the clothing thing; either with Andrea dressing uncharacteristically professionally (Because of the high stakes), or making a youthful mistake and getting marked down for not doing so. We've got this build up telling us how getting an interview with Dr. Reiland is a rare coin, so it comes across as odd that not being professional shouldn't be a problem.
In the original draft I had written, Andrea explained how deeply in debt she was because of her time at university, and that she could barely afford the clothing on her back. When I read it back a few times, it felt a little too rambly and out of place. The chapter started to feel a little long, so that was one of the things I cut. Perhaps I can throw that back in, or add it to a conversation in a later chapter. *shrug*"Most people don't dress like they're going to a midnight rave when they have a job interview."
"This is the best I had. I'm fresh out of univ--"
"Relaaaaax, it's not me you have to impress," He let out a polite chuckle.
Despite the advancements of society and the rapid development of the country's urban centers, the wilderness felt as if it were untouched by human hands for thousands of years; aside from the winding cobblestone road that snaked its way through the foothills, nature was at its most pristine, unhindered state.
Yeah, she'll be different going forward, while maintaining a few of her personality quirks from Storm Island. Since this is a solo project from the start, it's given me the excuse to craft the characters in ways that I feel comfortable working with. Naturally, I've gotten rid of a lot of the weird quirks that made her a lackluster character (Sorry, Caitlin! but it's true). Hopefully I don't fall into the same pitfalls I experienced in the final chapters of SI.This new version of Andrea also seems more focused, the Andrea at the end of SI was kind of a mess in regards to what her character was supposed to be, to the point where at times it was a bit hard to discern how she beahved in different situations. So giving her a more focused personality works great, plus the Andrea here seems like a different version of some sort if you think about it, one that followed the thought of becoming a scientist and went to college and stuff and didn't had to go through the whole Crimson Crawdaunt incident.
I think pacing is always going to be like that for me. I have this strange need to follow the characters in 'real time', rather than skip a few days like some other authors might. This just naturally serves to slow down the pacing a bit. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure, but it's working for me as the writer.To be honest, I should really find something to complain about but it'll probably just be nitpicking, the only thing I can point out is the pacing, like we're at four chapters but it feels like we haven't really moved much, but at the same time each chapter also moves the story a long a bit or showcases something different about the characters of the world and it's still fun to read, at least to me, so I can't really knock it too much because of that. The other thing is the characters, while Andrea works really great the other characters are just kind of...well they're not bad, but they don't really stand out too much, though I could get used to Patrick much more than Larson at least.
I think the problem I had was with how long I spent trying to get the details and scenery right. The more I thought about it, the more it felt like I could hear the flies, smell the decay and feel the cold, even though none of those were present while I was actually writing. I just hope I don't have to get hung up on a situation like that again, because it wasn't fun to writeAnd lastly about chapter four. I don't really think you have much to worry about, while I know that the research must've been horrible the chapter itself doesn't really come off as too gross or disturbing, it leaves enough to the imagination without going excessive with it (or maybe I'm just a messed up person..) though I will say that imagining the fic as if it was in animated form makes it a lot easier than if it was in real life.
I haven't quite decided this yet, but it's looking like late 20s, since he's stated that he's been working with Dr. Reiland for nine years. Even with the age difference (which isn't that big, really), I don't think it's out of the question to hug the person who may have just saved your life.Also, I got a better feeling of Patrick's character this itme, though it was kind of weird of him to just hug Andrea randomly out of the blue, also how old is he again?
First bit, yes. The main functions of the organism are in the central mushroom (or 'brain', as it were), while the rest manage other non-critical functions, such as early detection of incoming predators, nutrient gathering, etc.So Blastcap are essentially colonial organisms, like a sponge? One thing does seem strange, that neither of the humans seem to be worried about infection. I mean, the question of whether Blastcap spores can affect humans doesn't come up at all, and it seems like it should, given what happened to the Miltank
I imagined it to be how I imagine Google's main HQ. Quite relaxed, laid back, and secrets are few and far between. Maybe that wouldn't fly in a traditional professional setting, but it's what I'm going with here.The professionalism in the workplace seems to be a bit off here. This may be a case of different workplaces having different standards, but anyway - I would usually expect Patrick to be quizzed on Andrea's performance out of her earshot. That's not such an issue, though, as Reiland's comments on his work ethic in front of a new hire. If Andrea were a supervisor, that would be a different kettle of fish, but she's very much junior in the workplace. I kind of like Dr Reiland being up front about his conduct in Nettlefield, though I think it would work better if she weren't in the least apologetic about it
Interesting to note, but I'm not sure if that'll change. I'm not looking for 100% accuracy, I'd never get anything done. Perhaps the village never really had a proper name during the olden times so it eventually came to be known simply as Doranshire, as that's the name of the general land around it. There's a few landmarks in the area that aren't part of the town or even specifically named, so perhaps this can be an explanation. Maybe a bit of a cop out, buuuut... eh.A village called Doranshire? I suspect this is going to be something you've already thought of, and a case of Beth being picky, but given that "shire" is a name for division of land it doesn't seem likely that it would find its way into a village name. A village called Doranfield/ham/wick/etc, in the county/shire/prefecture/etc of Doranshire, would make more internal sense
The plan is for it to be large, roughly equatable to the UK. I remember using the route from Bournemouth to Edinburgh as a general estimate of the time I wanted between the capital city (Aughrim) and a sizeable town on the opposite side of the country (Loch Alstan). I very much doubt I've made the proper calculations though, somewhere along the way the time scale between walking and taking a train is going to break.Setting
So, Lanark is a big old region, eh? I don't recall if you said what kind of trains they're running, but assuming they're ageing electrics, a seven hour journey equates to a region at least as big as England. Ok, in the big scheme of things that's not big, but in terms of fanfiction regions that's a proper sense of space.
In its most basic meaning, according to a wiki article I read, it was a generic social gathering, though dancing and festivities usually took place at them. Uninteresting note, I was tempted to ask you about it before deciding to do my own researchI wish I was better with those damn Celtic languages. Cèilidh would be ... party, dance, festival, I think?
The loneliness will probably be limited. I feel like I've gotten better at working with characters working in solo situations, but I still want to rely on my usual crutch of character interaction. Writing doesn't feel right without it.Story
Well, it's a much lonelier story than Storm Island (Yes, I'm missing Kim, I'll get over it). The geography of Lanark rather adds to that feeling - there's a lot of reasonably warm people but a lot of reasonably superficial interaction as well.
This has been the difficult part for me so far with the 'new' Andrea. I know it's probably a little early to ask, but have I been doing a decent job of leaving a bit of mystery for readers to ponder? I know I had a problem with spilling all of the details almost right away with Storm Island.I have to say, in fairness, that I think you're approaching the scientist angle in the right way. The theme is much less "insufferable genius explains everything with science", much more "girl with a lot to learn gets pulled out of her comfort zone". If you can manage to bring the twin joys of learning things and finding new mysteries into the story I reckon you're on to a winner.
Can't win with them all, I guess. More main/supporting characters are scheduled to show up soon, we'll see how those go.Characters
I think I've realised why I'm not really connecting with Andrea. I don't think it's really down to anything you've done wrong, I just think it's more to do with me not being able to relate to her. The more I look at the text, the less anything I could pick on makes sense as an objection, so ... well, that's going to happen sometimes