Because you asked has no need for a disclamier
I think the author of any story I ever liked is a vessel for the story. Once he gets it out and nurtures it awhile then it's gone from him forever. If I read fiction I wrote in college and shortly afterward then they bring back the reason I wrote it. But I can't visualize the story anymore which is a shame, I can visualize what I wrote and it's never everything I had visualized then.
It's happening with story. I write plot line, ideas and draw things then write the chapter. I'm trying not to revise things to much or I would never be finished. I can be a touch OCD when it comes to the perfect description. So I write the chapter revise and edit it twice. Then publish it that night so it's finished and I can move on. The morning edit is done on paper while running on the treadmill. These are typos, grammar and spelling check. I write very quickly so something always slips through. That's the last edit a chapter is getting until the entire story is done.
Sometimes it's rather heartbreaking when I look back through the notes and find a really good idea or plot I never got around to writing. If you like this story you must care for detail. I try to minimize it at time. Most detail is in the beginning and middle scenes. By the last few scenes I'm trying to accomplish something so things move quicker. I try to change up the perspective as I write it. 1st person, 2nd and 3rd. I'll write a character's view of things then switch to the other or 3rd person to flesh something out. I tell you the reader so you know it's intentional. I may write 2 chapters soon with the view of something from one character in the first. Then the next chapter of the same event from the others point of view. Chapter 25 has some of that because we made a big time jump. The pacing had been about 3 chapters per day, then finally to a chapter per day, then every other day.
Part II will be with about the same pacing. It'll start slowly and speed up as the characters need to. Now onto the questions:
Do I read the whole piece?
Yes every week I read the whole piece make small edits on the master which I don't post. I also tend to read the last 4 or 5 chapters each day to get feel about where I was going with something.
Do I respond to everybody?
I try to and I soon as possibly can. I get about 5 times as many private messages, email, and tweets as reviews. I also like the banter. I have a few people that respond within minutes of the posting. Because I'm on the West coast I hear from most of you the next day. At that point I'm writing the next chapter I hope.
When will the story end?
It almost did at the end of Part I. I considered just writing a very long chapter 25 as an epilogue to finish each character story and beyond. I would have done a mélange of what I thought were important scenes and called it done. Right now I'm excited about writing the European chapters. You'll know it's the last chapter when I name it "The Epilogue Thread"
How much of the characters resemble there TBBT characters?
The short answer is maybe 25% on Leonard and Penny, 50% plus on the other characters. I take a lot of liberties there. We are going to get a real good look at Sheldon and Amy soon. Here's what the main characters look like to me. Most of this was written after the first couple of chapters I just cleaned it up here.
Penny:
Who is Penny based on? Of course it's based on the character from TBBT. Then add in a little Kaley Couco herself. A touch of other actresses and their travails are in there also. What are her traits? Penny has strength and courage to go on even when things seem hopeless to her. She still has some issues with showing frailty, weakness or doubt. But now she will really fight for the things she wants knowing that in the end it will be the right place she ends up. A lot of people get channeled into her. Now in this fiction she protects herself, her image and her privacy. Think Helen Hunt, Jodie Foster. They are in there somewhere. To be a real person but to hold back a portion of that which you are Is a very difficult and a treacherous path to be both lover and friend outside the industry. This is still very attractive women around 38 years old. She can still pass for under 30 in a pinch.
Leonard:
Leonard at 45 is the Leonard of the show. But more refined, parts of me are in there. Wine, scotch, cooking. He's moved a long way down the road of life both professionally and personally. I try to make Leonard introspective but not obsessive as he is with over thinking. He's aware now that when it comes to people and how they react he's not usually right. Think about the "Recombination Hypothesis" episode. Comfortable with himself, yet not, Leonard has found a certain ability to calm himself. Europe has produced a certain sophisticated erudite quality to Leonard. He has the same caring heart he has in the show but can more easily forgive faults in others. I have relieved him of his many maladies he suffered. Vision Issues, lactose intolerance, asthma, allergies were very funny vehicles for the sitcom but a little too shallow for the piece I envisioned.
Liisa, Horst, Lena and Lisel are all very real people to me. They are drawn off of real people both still with me and some not. I find them entirely the most difficult to write sometimes even though I know them the best.
There are more questions I know, I responded to most when they were asked.
The blog has more info, how the disclaimers are done and why they are really there. Things like that.
Send me more if you like but I have chapter 27 to start and a day to enjoy
Prequel to chapter 27
Raj was packing his bags quickly. He couldn't stand it any longer the constant bickering and Caterwauling between his wife, his mother, his sisters and now his mistress was giving him grief. He was leaving early for Paris. He would visit the city of Light and let his romantic nature of old run free. The flight was leaving in the morning, email letting all the women know he was being called early to the conference in Paris would go out after his plane took off. No reason to take any chances now. Just escape.