I have continued to write the story I'm working on, albeit slowly. I'm currently over 12,300 words, which is nearly the length of Ted Chiang's Story Of Your Life, and I'm probably about a quarter of the way through so far.
Wondering what TheMotte's opinion on lengthy scientific exposition in sci-fi is. I currently have a big block of speculative biochemistry in the latter half of the current draft of the story, and some of my beta-readers... don't like it. I've tried to simplify it so it's understandable while still maintaining the necessary verisimilitude, but in general I get the feeling it might be too much. Personally, I've always liked large infodumps of speculative science in my fiction, the chapter Orphanogenesis in Diaspora with its detailed and lengthy descriptions of how the conceptory creates an orphan is probably one of my favourite openings to a story ever, but in general this kind of thing seems to make people's eyes glaze over.
I've completed more of the story I was writing on the original Maker's Monday thread. I skipped the previous Tuesday thread despite reaching my original 500-word goal because I wanted people to be able to consume the newest section of the story as a unit. Thank you to everyone who read, especially to @jake in particular for the helpful suggestions - I've taken most of the comments on board and I think the flow is improved after having incorporated the critique.
Here is the newest version of the story. Note the prose is still subject to change in places here and there since a significant amount was added in a short period of time. For users who read my previous draft, the new stuff starts at page 10-11, and now commenter access has been enabled so anyone can give feedback while they read.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vqE5UICjRdNvbwaZGDYKGigV5sl6tKRAVr_ts7NVplg/edit
Also, going off advice by @self_made_human, here's the notes and references for the story up to this point, if anyone's interested.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kSpEc7VWSJDkurQSDfFZ29dgoii025-ZbaYfs5jhQqc/edit
I have been making very weird music. There's a ridiculous amount of genre blending in it and I'm not sure if it appeals to anybody other than me, but it's fine if not - I'm just having fun with it for the first time in a long time.
Here are two long tracks for your listening pleasure (hopefully).
https://voca.ro/17EHXBzKIaYj
https://voca.ro/1nyZB7yhcJAJ
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