A bit of a dilemma. · 12:01am Aug 11th, 2014
I'll be straight with you all, here. I haven't written myself into a corner; I've written myself into a world that's so large the original story might get lost in the din of other stories that play out in said theater. Memories of a Phoenix has increased in scope so far beyond what I originally imagined that, for a while, I felt a bit overwhelmed. Hell, in its infancy, the story was originally just gonna be a slice-of-life fic about Nix's interactions with the other characters. It's...quite a bit more than that, now.
The reason for my trepidation is a bit of character development and story pacing, and a bit of how this site tags stories. As it stands now, if I were to follow through with my original plans, Memories would end (finally) at well over 500k words. The whole reason for this first book was to set up a veritable Chekhov's Armory for the trilogy as a whole, and while I've almost got every metaphorical Gun in place, we're not quite there yet, and rushing things seems a bit contrived. I've considered shifting certain arcs to the next story in the series, but some of them really do have to happen in Memories to maintain a coherent narrative. As humorous as you all think the story is, I've had that tragedy tag on it since the very beginning, and that was very much intentional. Some things have to happen naturally, and I can't just shift those arcs to the second story because reasons.
This story was never going to have a very pretty ending for our resident god-slaying human, and I was a bit proud about how cathartic—and depressing—the ending would be as it segued into the next story. Therein lies the problem, though. Just setting the stage for the world in which Nix and the various other gods and goddesses exist is a massive undertaking, and the length of this first story would dwarf the next two in scale.
Then, I realized I was being very, very foolish. This isn't a novel in the proper sense of the word. The digital medium through which we post stories is functionally similar to stories you might pick up at a bookstore, but it has one thing that physical books don't: limitless storage. Consider Murky Number Seven. One story, well over 900k words. Diaries of a Madman? It's up to 1.6 million words, now.
You would never see novels that length in print. But they're not in print, so they don't have a word limit.
And now, neither does Memories. Barring further developments, there's not going to be a trilogy. The entire, overarching story I had for the trilogy is going to all be written into Memories of a Phoenix, but split into different arcs like the previously linked stories so I can still provide the same sense of catharsis we get when we finish a book. Some story arcs are longer than others, but in the end they all lead up to the final climax. The one I've had in my head since Nix was first forced from his home world.
Also, at one point or another I'll probably add a side-story or two regarding Glancing Shock and Moon Glade. Their pasts keep pestering me to be written. We'll see, though.
And before you ask, no, the next chapter isn't done yet. But it is over 5k words so far, so, yes, it is being worked on. Sorry for the wait.
Well I say this. I won't read Diaries of a Madman because the bitch is to damn long to catch up on. That's the risk you run to put something that size in one story. People won't give much thought about it when its so big its gonna hurt your ass just sitting there reading it.1.6 million words is intimidating and will scare the shit out of some folks.
2360166 I understand completely. I download the epub files and read everything on my Kindle, but I also realize most of you are probably reading your fanfics from PCs and laptops. It also hurts my exposure a bit to just have one story, as well. If I were to finish Memories and post the next story in the series, a hundred or so of my readers liking/faving the sequel when it first came out would pretty much guarantee a spot in the feature box.
But I can't do that without seriously mussing up the plot, or without having characters do things they otherwise wouldn't.
If I can find a way to split it up into separate stories and not ruin the narrative, I will. But I'm not gonna sacrifice the quality of the story just because some people might be intimidated by the length.
2360321 It is?
Okay, guys, next chapter comes out three years from now, after MLP has been cancelled/rebooted. You can thank Aku.
2360827 Yea I understand what you mean as well. Sometimes readers can be real picky though.