Chaaaaaapter 65.

[valis2]

I've uploaded chapter 65! I'm so happy! So tired! Friend says it's great, and that makes me so very, very happy. I do think this arc is the best part of the whole story so far. Too bad it took so long to get to!

Anyway, will hop over and check out the flist one more time, and then it's to bed.

Oh, to wake up to a review or two, that would be bliss...

Oh, btw, I'm about a month away from my First LJ Anniversary, and I am planning on writing a little happy thing about everyone on my flist (much like this entry). If you don't want me to say something positive about you, let me know before April 15th. Comment here, e-mail me, something, and I won't say a peep about you. Otherwise, you're fair game.

Comments

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

How many chapters did you envisage when you started out?

I'm currently on 61 and estimated at the outset thirty. By the time I reached c. 17 I altered that to 35. Reached 29 and thought thirty...

And well, you get the picture!

I just wondered if your tale "grew with the telling" as Tolkien described LOTR (and my, aren't we in fancy company)?

Anyway, congrats on reaching 65!

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I thought that I would have about 50. However, I started out writing very short chapters (1000-2000 words) and that inflated the chapter count a bit. I'm now averaging 2000-3000 words a chapter and that makes more sense, and is kinder to the reader as well. Honestly, though, I don't have a lot left, and I keep crossing my fingers that it will be finished soon.

If I had to do it over again I'd excise the Harry subplot entirely and just go with the SS/OFC plot. And I wouldn't have spent so much time and energy on this kind of story; it's obvious that most of the people who recommend fics, and most of the more experienced fanfic readers avoid SS/OFC like the plague. Had I known what I know now I would have stuck with shorter stories. Writing this monster has officially taken over a year now and I feel sad that the 110,000+ words I've spewed out will never attract a larger audience simply because of the pairing.

Also, if I could only do one little thing over again, I'd put it on Schnoogle instead of The Dark Arts at FictionAlley (revising the chapter lengths, of course). I've noticed that other sixth year Harry stories that feature SS/OFC get a lot more hits in that archive than in TDA, though I'm still extremely satisfied about the amount of reviews that I've received.

Oh, and I credited you in this chapter (the SH version, I forgot to do it on the other two archives but will remedy that soon) with coming up with the proper expletive for Severus. It really seemed to work. Thank you!