State of things · 4:53am Dec 4th, 2019
Okay, now that A Deer Named John has finished, people may be wondering where to next? And when will we get there? Will we see the guest characters again? Will there be a call for more guest characters? What about the other two story universes?
We'll start with where to next.
I have figured out a sort of thin through plot for the shorts which will be grouped together and called The Loose Tea Leaves - Collection 1. Still solving a few things with them but that is happening surprisingly fast. I have also changed the order of the shorts in the collection to reflect the new story flow. Unlike the chapter titles in John, I don't really expect these to change. The titles reflect some of what is to happen in the short stories so speculate away. Also, if a short becomes so long it needs to be split, I will have them called part 1 and part 2. The most likely this will happen to is Rock Crush Love? Just depends how in depth that one becomes (an unintended pun that no one but me will get for now).
When will we get there?
Hopefully very soon. A major stumbling block in breaking the group up for some of the stories has been resolved. There will be others along the way, but those can be solved when they pop up. Really trying to get the first short out within a week but am not sure yet due to reasons I am about to explain.
Another major stumbling block is that with helping my father in regards to his hospital visit, I was still in the tail end of the same illness as him. Going in and out of the hospital for a couple of days to visit combined with unseasonably cold weather has flared my bug again but not to the massive degree it did to my father. I'm resting and doing what I can to get better. Doesn't stop ideas forming, just slows production.
Another issue is the weather. If you have ever tried to use a laptop in blisteringly hot weather, you may have found it tries to burn you. I'm also not so good creative-wise when it gets extremely hot. Normally I use this time to edit, not produce content. As it turns into Summer where I am, this will become more frequent and there is, unfortunately very little I can do about it. The first of which will be the coming Sunday and Monday which are both currently listing as 39 C/102.2 F so not looking forward to that. Will do my best.
Will we see the guest characters again?
Answer. Yes. Haven't exactly pinned down who and when yet but there are plans developing. Especially for the first short. I will contact the character owners again when I know more for permission to use them again.
Will there be a call for more guest characters?
As yet, I don't know. We will probably be seeing interactions with official canon characters more in the shorts but not every short. And with characters who have not yet appeared.
What about the other two story universes?
Further Findings of Close Call is only in its rough early development phase. It still needs a LOT of preparation before I can kick that one into gear.
Keepers of the Crag, while much closer to being able to get into production, has a problem with perspective which I am trying to solve. I really want it to be entirely from the point of view of one character. The problem is how the opening works. Until I can solve this issue, it will, unfortunately continue to sit in development limbo.
Am I really a story writing machine that catches viruses from time to time?
Maybe. I have no proof otherwise to give anyone on here.
Anyway, hope that lays things out for the near future in particular. As usual, I will be around here far more often than I probably should be,
Tael.
That's exactly what a story writing machine would say!
I would really suggest that you keep all your shorts and stories together in one story file, believe me seeing that a story is broken up into pieces can kill an interest in a story especially, especially when you need the earlier one to make sense of what's happening. If you want your characters to have their own moment there is nothing bad at just dedicate a chapter to just them and we see it often enough. I can get that the first short was just a pilot episode, but for the rest I think you would have better chance a gathering a audience of readers if you show how much words you have accumulated to your main one.
Sounds like your creativity is doing pretty well - even in the heat!
Soon be winter ...
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My biggest problem with that method is not so much the fact John isn't in every story, it is more trying to distinguish the arcs and the shorts form each other. And while writing this I thought of putting arc plus the number in front of the arc stories and short plus a number in front of the shorts. I can re-jig it as needed but be interesting to hear thoughts on this method, may add it as an edit to the post.
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Yeah, for you northern hemisphere types. I'm a southern hemisphere one. Though I have experienced your non-snow winter once before, this is the time for me when the sun gets its vengeance for looking the other way in May through August.