NaPoWriMo and "The Ash of Fallen Stars"

I’m doing NaPoWriMo again. I’m doing “The Ash of Fallen Stars” … again. I really thought I’d be done with it by now. Ugh, this has been one of the least productive years I’ve spent writing that I actually tried to spend writing.

The first few days of WriMo have gone insanely well. I hit the climax of the first big arc, and it’s just going amazing. In three days I’ve written nearly eight thousand words. I’m having so much fun. Must… resist… urge to spoil. I’ll just say that it rivals the intensity of the finale of Mask of Despair. Nearly as long too, and I think it’s worth every word.

I think I’m taking today “off.” Not really not working on it, I’m just going to spend it working on some class stuff and then writing up my cover request (because I need that) instead of working on the story itself today. If I can manage to stick my landing and finish the arc climax then I’ll finally, finally, be in a position to start actually posting it where it can be read.

The only thing that (I know) I need to fix is one name. I want to name a character after the line on the moon between dark and light, for symbolic reasons. The issue is that it’s called “the lunar terminator.” Which is a terrible, terrible, pony name. I’ve been calling him Shadow Break, but I don’t really like it. I’m considering either Equinox (the day when light and dark are equal), or Aphelion (the point in an orbit farthest from the sun).

I’ll put up the first chapter, and then no less than once per week I’ll let out the next one. I am not making the mistake I made with Mask of Despair, I’m not putting everything up at once. This also means I’ll be able to easily see how many people are reading it.

FimFiction has a feature that shows the unique views count on a graph, so you can see which chapters have been read at a glance. Unfortunately for me, it displays it on a graph of when each chapter was released. Because Mask of Despair was released all at once, it’s a huge mess and I can’t find the individual chapters on the chart aside from the ones at the very top and very bottom. (This is how I know that no more than 82 people have read the whole thing) On a shorter story, with fewer chapters, it wouldn’t be a problem. But Mask of Despair has 55. I could go check each chapter individually, but… there’s 55 of them.

Back on the WriMo topic. Once I “finish” Ash of Fallen Stars I think I’ll do some more of Elements of Tyranny. My game is now over 40 sessions long, and I’ve got so much material. I’m not sure if I’m going to write more new stuff or re-work the first chapter or so. I’m thinking I’ll take out the long dream sequence of the past and reveal it a bit later, once the main 3 characters meet up and compare notes. Maybe I’ll break it down into smaller chapters, just so it’s friendlier to read. But that’s for later.