Monthly Update · 4:21am Dec 14th, 2013
Except totally a day late, not that it matters.
I have, in fact, not been having very much fun this past month. Most of you can probably share my woes with finals, and while I'm not taking any particularly hard courses, they are also courses I may not have been trying too hard in, due to my raging disinterest in the subject matter. It's fortunate this time, then, that my currently pending academic success or failure came with a relatively cheap bill, considering they were intro courses I took to defer my loans while I solve other debt issues. Fine print is OP.
In addition to hardly attending my courses, writing snide papers for all of my required assignments, and acing the tests (which don't necessarily count for enough to pass), I have also been working "full time". Don't ask about the quotations. A long story short, while I'm not really staggering under the weight of the shit I have to do and still have some moderate freedom to slack off here and there, it's still frustrating and stressful most of the time.
Now that you've finished listening to me complain, I will tell you what you actually want to know.
A vast amount of the lore for new Visionary (the incredible majority of it, in fact) has been fully decided upon. It is marvelously different, and yet in some cases strikingly similar. A new name for the universe has not been decided upon yet, and for the current stage of project development, that isn't really necessary. I plan to write a great deal over the course of the winter break, hopefully resulting in several lengthy, and entertaining, chapters. In the places I will be going over Christmas, my distractions will be at an all time low, and when I am not distracted... well, some of you probably still exist who remember the times when I would post four or five updates in two weeks.
Now to depress you all by repeating something I've already told you: these chapters will not be available to view, or to pre-read. I am avoiding all forms of editing and review until the first book's rough draft is completed. This will hopefully allow those whom I turn to for my writing support to provide me with observations, edits, and suggestions that will help to make the entirety of the story read and flow better, rather than simply the various pieces I manage to form up. This will also help to fill in advance the types of plot holes I have unfortunately made a habit of so far.
Consider a rough draft as large as Visionary and Tinkermane combined. Then consider that after edits have been implemented and various suggestions acted upon, the story will likely grow more as I flesh out rushed descriptions, too-simple character developments, and various other things. If I had to estimate in numbers I would say, without too much exaggeration, that I could expect the first book itself to come out to well over three-hundred-thousand words.
Not a word of that has anything to do with Aurus, the desert, or the . That's just the first book, which focuses on a new (sort of) character named Ayla, good ol' Gearrick, Myla, Phyla, , , and the stirring tale of their adventures in .
To some of you that number seems like a somewhat petty amount, considering that some of the greats in fiction write entire encyclopedias just to compliment their works. To others it seems astronomical, because most fanfiction that goes in a straight line (and isn't majorly timey-wimey or whatever) doesn't even scratch that, and it is roughly equal to all (hardly any) of my fanfiction works combined.
Word count is irrelevant, of course, and I have no intention of letting that number become an expectation or a goal. Hopefully, to many of you, it represents more than just the length of the story I intend to make. I'm not boasting when I say this (and am in fact probably quoting someone among you), but some of you have commented on the good quality of what I have accomplished in my writing, especially in few words. I'm not using 'few words' this time. I'm using three books, and that's just the centerpiece of this universe.
I am unreasonably excited to begin this project, at long last. It's absolutely more than a rewrite, and it will allow me to do with my characters and world what I never could have before. I think you will all enjoy it, when I've finally decided it's time to share. If I have my way, I will have finished the draft of this first work one year from today. If I have my way again after making that goal, I hope to have something worth showing you all by the summer of 2015.
I will, of course, keep you all posted on my progress. When it's lacking (I hope it never is) I expect you all to complain loudly and nag at me until I get my ass in gear once more. I'm not asking you to be patient this time: my zeal depends in part upon yours and your impatience. Please do me the favor, if you want this story to become a reality, of pushing even me farther than you have in these last two years. After all, I've learned by writing for all of you that I can't do this myself. You are the people who pushed me to my first-ever self-written completed work. That was HoaD in 2012.
Help me get there again in 2015.
I'll probably go through like five keyboards writing this first book,
Aaron.
Hmmm, can I get a TL;DR version? I have a flight to catch at 0330, and need to get some sleep.
I wish you success in breaking away from pony. And I hope that when you get the book done you will tell us where to get it.
Sounds like a good read, little long, but that's not a bad thing, and I'm especially interested in .
Heck yeah, man. When your book is published, I'm gonna be first in line to get a copy.
Nice to see you're still alive and (relatively) well, man. Very nice indeed. As always, I eagerly await for your next work of awesomeness. Keep keeping on, never give up.
~Flicka Ravenhide.
Alright, I'm going to spend this time inventing time travel, when that's completed, I'm going to go to you when you've finished the book, grab the book, go back in time to send myself the book along with how to make time travel possible in however long, then proceed to stable time loop with awesome literature.
I expect to see myself tomorrow/some time in the future
I have no idea how the fuck you do it, but even this is more inspiring than most of the best fics I've read, lol.
I'm very excited, I like to hear these updates because they are the only thing both calming my hype and making it stronger. I can already imagine when I get my hands on the book. Nigga you ain't seen such intense reading befo'! (and it will happen, I know it)
While my life has been a lot easier than yours who have finals and shit, I've been having problems with getting inspired. I need to draw backgrounds for a comic and my inspiration has been going on and off, so luckily this update came now. I'm suddenly ready to "mow the lawn" with my drawing tablet and pen... just gotta hope it won't get dirty. EHEHEHE-no.
Anyways, I gotta go buy some stuff now, bye!
1604846
Wanna fight over it? Because I'll be ready to go to hell and back to get the book first!
lol, nice to see someone that has same intentions as I xD
1604765
Me too man. Me too.
These words make me exited.
[Generic positive comment]
[Nagging about homophone mishaps]
[Post-nagging nagging]
And I almost forgot: [MOAR]
[Generic sign-off]
[Name]
1605245 Bring it. You'll have to pry the first copy from cold, dead fingers. We can get some soft tacos after.
1605820, 1605245
i.imgur.com/IYxM7rD.gif
1605820 1605829
I'm having hard time figuring out how to respond to these both with one reply ._.
1604518
He's tired as fuck and under alot of shit, but he'll see what he can do for us.
1605952 Like this.
1606622 Thanks.
@razor: No pressure, no one blames you for being behind schedule, life gets that way sometimes.
1608454 Hauckhaigfauxcklchylgdfh
I can't even...
1609281 Yeah, I get that a lot.
It's always been thrilling to me when I get the chance to introduce old friends to new friends and see them interact. Because it's one thing to imagine it, and an entirely different thing to watch it actually play out in front of you. Whenever they hit it off and you get to watch them light up as they find out all the stuff they have in common, it's fucking magical.
We got a taste of that at the end of Tinkermane--your writing gives me the Old Friend vibes when it comes to your characters. So the prospect of Gearrick, , and interacting feels kind of like the thrill of uncertainty before introducing friends to each other.
It's a good kind of nervous.