I am decided: Fridays will now be First Draft Fridays, for some WiP. It'll take off tomorrow (Friday the Fifteenth), on Wattpad.
Why Wattpad, of the options for fiction sites that feature decent ToS? Easy-to-use interface. Using Wattpad—and only Wattpad, at least for now—will be the easiest method for posting those first drafts.
(And it helps that, just browsing around, I recognize some of the other authors on there from my online meanderings.)
So… Wattpad is chosen.
Now, the story I've chosen to start with is science fiction romance; you can read the opening scene of “Thrice Uncharmed” on Wattpad now. Why did I pick “Thrice Uncharmed” as the story to blog? I'm going to submit it to a particular small publisher once completed, and I've confirmed that publisher is fine with stories starting life as blogged, and it should end up a novelette).
So the posting of this story will give me time to get used to posting a first draft, getting in the habit, and deciding how I want to handle this in general. After seeing how it goes, I'll decide on how I want to continue it—such as, stay on Wattpad, blog the first draft to A Fistful of Water, that sort of thing.
Because I'll be submitting “Thrice Uncharmed” to a small press, I suspect the final cover will end up completely different from my original mock-up (assuming even the title remains the same), but here's the cover that I've put on Wattpad:
Wynne Layuman doesn’t hate Hector Primuman the Fourth, but with their steady rivalry through school and the way everyone keeps tossing them together, she can’t bring herself to like him much, either. Eventually, people use the outdated Earth adage, “The third time’s the charm,” as if the third attempt to set Wynne up with Hector hadn’t happened by the time they hit Dyad (age sixteen). She expects she’ll end up Partnerless at Triad (twenty-four) and then assigned one—the colony’s young and still needs to propagate, after all—but for it to be someone who she’ll love or who can understand her when she starts talking the heat capacity of con-carbon? Dream on.
Hector Primuman the Fourth, great-great grandson of the man who founded the original colony, has long known he’s odd. With the genengineering that advanced his mind at the expense of his body, the closest thing he has to a friend is the one girl who can (usually, sort of) keep up with him: Wynne Layuman, whose materline has worked in construction since the second generation, and whose paterline has provided many of the most ingenious innovations used by the colony. But Wynne’s highly competitive—and popular—leaving him aware that while she’s the closest thing he has to a friend, the feeling isn’t mutual.
Can Wynne and Hector get past the rivalry to develop something more, or will others’ meddling sabotage whatever chances they have?
Note that it is a first draft, so it will be rough, with typos and such. (And yes, that lady's camisole looks odd, I know. It was my first attempt at painting one.) If you're interested, check it out. If not, let me know what you are interested in seeing more from me. (I mean, other than the next Aleyi novel. I'm working on it.)
Are you interested in the story? Is there another story you'd rather see? Have you ever thought about (or actually have) blogged one of your own stories (and if you have, care to share a link)?
—Misti
