1 Year of work - Progress Update · 5:23am Sep 12th, 2015
It's been a whole year since I've started this project. 
And what a year it's been! I've got nearly 100,000 words written, and things have been quite active lately.
It's also been a fair bit of time since I've made a public statement, so I figured it was a good idea to poke my head out of my hidey-hole to let you all know that I'm not dead, and neither is the story. In fact, it's been getting quite a bit of work in recent weeks.
As with many creative projects, this one will definitely be done "when it's done". Still, it's good to let you all see how things are progressing.
I've currently got two chapters drafted and being reviewed prior to posting. My team has finished reviewing chapter six, although I have not yet applied the recommended changes. Chapter seven is waiting for one person to finish reviewing. I'm undecided how "polished" to make the chapters before posting them in the public group. I'm trying to make the best use of my time, so part of me is inclined to just post them "as is" and let you all read them. I can make the fixes later. Or, I could take the time to fix them now at the cost of a bit more delay before posting.
I've recently had the good fortune of picking the brain of LegionPothIX, who had some very useful tips to give me. Most of this advice has been in the area of making a good outline and making sure that the plot shows up right away when someone starts reading. Sadly, my plot doesn't really kick in until chapter four. I found a way to fix this, though. I'll be making a minor change to the published chapters to weave the main plot back through them and ensure that all the stuff with Dusty's assassination attempt is directly related. It's a minor point, but many critics have observed that the whole introduction with the first three chapters doesn't really seem related to everything that comes later. I know not everyone minds, because many of you just want a good Nyx adventure. But I'm trying to make this an exceptional story, so I'll be making those fixes.
In addition, I want to write a prologue. This would be a short chapter that comes first. Before chapter one. It would thrust the reader head-first into the main problem of the story in an exciting way so they understand what is at stake and know what to expect as the story progresses. This might be 4000 words or so, and I haven't picked out what plot elements to expose in it yet.
Most significantly, the past three weeks or so, I have been busy outlining the entire story with a new tool I found called The Brain. This is an amazing tool which makes brainstorming and visualizing complex systems a breeze. Unfortunately, I'm down to 2 weeks left in my trial period, and I'm pretty sure I will be purchasing this. It costs $220 USD. 
If anyone wants to throw a few bucks in the jar to help me buy it, I'd be grateful, though please don't feel obligated.
What have I been doing with this thing? I've been putting together the story's various threads and arcs, and in the process, I've discovered quite a few areas which I didn't realize needed fixes or connections. The result of this is that the story has really strengthened in the past couple weeks! I have a very solid ending now, and I'm currently in the process of trying to connect the end to the beginning. Most of the middle of the story, I haven't actually planned at all. So this is a loooong overdue process of actually figuring out how the middle goes.
Because the story is so complex with so many simultaneous threads which weave together, having a good outline is absolutely essential so that I can keep track of it all and make sure that it is easy to follow by the time it's written. This is much more ambitious than I originally planned, and I'm really excited to make this great story for you all to read!
To show you a sample of what I've plotted out so far, I have a composite screenshot to give you an idea of how big this is.
The main thing to take away from this is that the story has definitely not stalled. In fact, it has accelerated development.
I didn't know you could write with lightning bolts :O
WO! now that is a lot of whatever that is since I cant read it at all.
3387157 Hehe. Yeah, I shrunk the images down on purpose so I don't give away spoilers. But each bit of text is a plot element. Something which happens in the story which is caused by the things below it, and which in turn causes the things above it. Except for the one on the lower right, which is a character list.
pbs.twimg.com/media/CDIX2GZW8AAESSR.jpg
3411152
Maybe Freemind will work for you.
3662940
That looks cool too, although I it doesn't appear to allow an item to have more than one parent.
members.iinet.net.au/~recon/Junk/Brain.png
Also really important is the ability to hide portions of the outline and make saved views where you can place all the items in the exact position you want.