"WHERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER, SANCTAE?" said the strawman · 4:56pm Jun 22nd, 2012
Hey there everyone who cares about my story! So, I figured that, rather than just disappear for a month between chapters, I'd post here occasionally about the status of the upcoming chapter. I know it takes ages, but if I go much faster it will suck and I would rather be shouted at for begin slow than for being disappointing.
Right now, my pre-reader is going through it but it's 10,000 words and the poor guy only has a finite amount of time. It will be up soon.
SO, in the meantime, I wanted to float a couple of ideas.
First off, I think I'm going to do these kind of 'update' posts on a fairly regular basis. I don't want to spam people but I figure that a weekly status update would be nice for people who care and can be easily ignored by people who don't. If that's annoying then let me know, otherwise I'll be posting more of these.
Secondly, Starworks is something that I am trying to put a lot of effort into. I've planned out a lot and I'm really being careful about my style and wanting my pre-reader to go through it with a fine-tooth comb. However, there are days when I just can't write what needs to get written when my head just isn't in the right place to write i.e. I need to write drama but my head is stuck in comedy mode.
I was thinking that maybe I would run a few shorter things and one-shots on the side which would not take time away from Starworks but might mean that less time is just wasted away, staring blankly at the screen not knowing what to write.
Also, that would give me an opportunity to try out various styles. Serious sci-fi adventure is my most natural style, but I'd like to push myself a little and try something darker or something that's a simple slice of life. They may not be very good, being outside my comfort zone as they are, but hopefully they'll still be enjoyable and would fill in the aching gaps in between Starworks chapters.
I have a couple of ideas at the moment for these little experiments; an experiment with how to create a 'dark' atmosphere with a little Fluttershy one-shot and a comedy that won't get out of my head about Octavia starting a crusade against electronic music by going undercover to destroy it. Not the most original, I know, and without so much pre-reading they might not be so good, but...well I've already explained so I'll stop before I descend into apologetics.
I mean, that isn't really a question like the first point was, but I'd still like to know what people think.
Thanks for all the support, you guys, and thank you for being patient and putting up with my very slow schedule. I hope you think it's worth it in the long run!
Judging by the first two chapters, the wait will be worth it in the long run.
That Octavia short sounds pretty interesting, too.
You are nowhere near as slow as some other authors that I'm following. I'm lucky to see a new chapter from them every few months.
I support the idea of trying out some smaller, quicker works. They do wonders for clearing your mind of distracting ideas and lets you play around with other writing styles without harming your more serious works. I've done that myself recently and now I'm looking forward to getting back to my longer stuff. Plus, it's personally satisfying to look at my author's page and see a varied set of stories and that I have what it takes to break out of my comfort zone. Some of those stories I'm more proud of than others, but I let my readers decide that.
I wouldn't mind seeing more posts like this. Whatever it takes to keep you going is fine in my book. Maintaining your interests in a long work is the hardest thing for me to deal with as an author.