Fic Update: Action Figures Sold Separately
Action Figures Sold Separately
Chapter 2 (on AO3 & FFnet)
My babble is spoiler-laden.
Wow, this chapter.
So it's clocking in at 18,132 words according to Microsoft Word's wordcount tool, which I trust more than my other sources. (FFnet seems to think it's at 18,867. Don't know how that is. I have no idea why there's a discrepancy, but AO3 is summing the two chapters at 27,829 words while FFnet is summing the two chapters at 29,238 words. I've been meaning to trim the author's notes on FFnet for a bit the way I edited the A/N's on th AO3, but the difference is certainly not on the order of over a thousand words. Confirmation, if I needed any, that there's something wonky with FFnet's wordcounting.)
I'm harping on this a bit personally because I read somewhere once that if you want to get a book published, you start with a 20,000 word manuscript, because publishers don't want to take a chance on a new author with something longer. Maybe that's BS. But it's stuck in my head for some reason, because it makes me look at fic in a slightly different light. Well, I've always done the "read the summary, compare with wordcount" thing and not even bothered with stories that claim they're going to tell impressive encounters and clock in at 1.5K. Sorry, but no, you're not telling an epic AU in that length. You're not even really introducing me to your characters. But this whole 20,000 word thing - I just posted that, and a lot happened. I mean, there are tons of info and character building and interactions in there, and I was trying to orient the readers to the timeline throughout. But in story-time, well, about fourteen hours passed.
That is more than usually detailed and slow-paced for me. It didn't feel slow-paced because there was so much going on, but I promise - the rest of the story is not going to be anything like that. I don't think I could ever work up the gumption to write anymore on this fic if it was. So there's no way in hell I'm going to take 18+K to write the passage of fourteen hours again, especially when my goal is for this fic to last approximately one month in story-time.
Regardless, this chapter was longer than I intended it to be. By a lot. I like to mentally tell myself I'm going to keep the chapter lengths roughly uniform, but I don't generally practice that. However, this is the first time a subsequent chapter has been almost double the length of the prior chapter. I don't like that much because it makes me think that there's something wrong with my storytelling. However, I actually cut this chapter down, as there were two segments that almost went in completely different directions. You'll be getting those deleted scenes in a bit, posted as a separate fic in the series.
Speaking of which - Don't ask about the series tag. Really. It's hopeful thinking at this point and purely because I want to put the deleted scenes somewhere connected.
But back to the chapter length - I have specific plans for chapter 3 (more on that when we get there), which sort of required me to end this chapter in this place at this time and with these people. Literally, my notes for this chapter have had as the final line "End with 'Call in the Asset'" since initial drafting stage. In order to keep with those plans, though - which I've been looking forward to for awhile, I must admit - I had to get all this in. And I couldn't find a good interim point in this chapter where I thought I could break it up into two, so it is as it is and that's what it is.
The last two POV switches were kind of thrown together today, though, so I might at some point go back and edit, correct, and flesh out if there seem to be issues and/or confusion and/or comments. I just wanted it DONE.
I did struggle quite a bit with some of - okay, all of - the SHIELD personnel points of view. Because I have the first season of Agents of SHIELD on DVD, but I know it's not that great and I just can't make myself watch it. I don't know why. I'll get over it in a bit, I think. But in the interim, I'm using other sources to help me maintain the characterizations of Coulson, Sitwell, Fury, and Rumlow. So if you want to blame anyone for the length of time it took me to get this chapter out, blame them.
Though the first encounter of Coulson and Murdock was so much fun to write. It really, really was.
EDIT (1/7/16): So, upon discovering this timeline of MCU Events, I am now screwing even more with what I thou was the timeline. Originally, I was under the mistaken impression that the Duel of Harlem took place in 2008, since that's when the movie The Incredible Hulk came out. Coincidentally, that's probably around the first and last time I saw that movie. (I have no idea what Edward Norton was thinking, but I walked away with the disturbing impression that Bruce Banner mainlined some kind of downer even prior to becoming the Hulk, that's how bizarre his conversation with Betty Ross at the cabin was. Which is literally all I remember from that movie.)
Now, my sources say that the Duel of Harlem happened in 2011. However, I can't move Daredevil back as far as I've already committed to and still have it work, if the Duel of Harlem with which I'm replacing the Chitauri attack (in order to get Karen Page where I need her so that the Daredevil timeline isn't thrown off at all) is not even a year before this story's "present day." Soooo, since this timeline doesn't seem to have much else clogging it up (and since Steve Rogers was apparently found in 2011 per this timeline? Ooops, THAT's not happening) in June of 2010, that is when I've decided the Duel of Harlem is taking place.
And now you're looking at me weird, if you're looking at me at all, saying, "Hey, it's just one number in a chapter and it means nothing, so just change it." Well, I'm committed to assisting audiences in suspending their disbelief. And anyone who's ever had any type of construction take place on their morning commute knows they're in for years of detours; so breaking Harlem isn't just a quick fix. Four years was believable. Two . . . kind of a stretch. But 000101011 REBOOTING - I just had an idea. Tell you later.
The only other note is that I will be updating the AO3 tags as characters come into play, so that's definitely going to be an "in order of appearance" type of thing. Roughly.
And yeah, at some point I will be fixing the FFnet A/N's in Chapter 1 to be a little less. I can spell "concise," I even know what it means; I'm just not that great at practicing it. Working on it.
And as always, no promises as to the timeframe for the next update. But since probably two people besides me will ever read this post, zero guilt. Hurrah! C'est la vie.