wherein Liz does the headless chicken dance of too many words and not enough time

Aaah, help, my NFE fic is doing the thing my stories always do and ending up completely not the length I thought it would be. Then again, I knew from the word go that it had two intertwined plots, and if that isn't something that screams, "Hey, this is going to be LONG," I don't know what is, so probably I was indulging in willful self-delusion.

Anyway.

It will have chapters, because as of now it is too long to fit into a single LJ post, and I am only about halfway through. Take that as you will. (I do think it will remain shorter than "What Isn't Broken (Can Still Be Fixed)," if only because that story was just ridiculous, but still. Definitely one of my longer conceived-as-a-one-shot pieces.)

*beats head against table*

So yeah, I am going to write for another half hour, and then I am heading off to the grocery store when Uris Library kicks me out at 5pm. When I get home with my groceries, there will be a couple hours before I can turn my own computer on, during which I may well hit the laundromat, since if I get my extension request, I will probably be up at Olin Library tomorrow afternoon before work instead of, as would otherwise be logical, doing laundry.

Time management is evil and I hates it, precious...

wherein Liz begs for a very rough beta-check on ch. 1 of her NFE fic

I've given up and split my NFE fic into chapters for purposes of LJ posting. This may end up longer than "What Isn't Broken" after all, dammit. *beats head against desk*

Clearly I fail utterly at estimating story lengths -- this is already longer than I had projected, and I am in... well, hopefully the middle middle by now, rather than just the early middle? I don't know though. I really don't know. Unplanned minor characters keep popping up to fill story niches I didn't know I needed to deal with, and there is a whole character arc thing I had not admitted to myself would be a necessary part of the plot (because otherwise certain actions make no sense), and that requires a bit of delicate tap-dancing to avoid implying things I don't mean to say about various issues.

Speaking of which, would anyone be willing to do a cursory read-through of what has become the first chapter? I am pretty sure my canon details are solid, and my spelling and grammar are usually decent, but I could use a second opinion on the world-building, the characterization, and whether my plot makes any sense to people who aren't me and therefore can't read my mind.

It's long enough that it barely fits in a single LJ post, but as I said, I am not looking for a line-by-line beta, just a rough reaction along the lines of, "This and that and the other thing worked for me, but I was confused about such-and-such, I think point X comes out of nowhere, and do you really need all the stuff about thingamabobs?"

If yes, please give me a way to email you and I will send the file ASAP! I need it back sometime tomorrow, if at all possible, though Monday evening would also work in a pinch.

*returns to frantic writing*