Fostering a Story: Disappointment-Incarnate's "All Hail the Overlord" · 10:39pm Oct 20th, 2022
Hello there!
If this blog's caught the attention of the little globe at the top of your screen, it's probably because you either follow me or track Disappointment-Incarnate's story All Hail the Overlord.
For those unaware, Disappointment put the story up for adoption last week after a three-year hiatus, explaining that they were unable to finish it due to IRL goings-on. The rest is a bit complicated, so just bear with me; hopefully it'll all make sense by the end of this post.
I've always had a soft spot for the changelings — even if my published writings have only featured them in very small doses thus far — so when I first saw Disappointment's adoption notice, I really considered offering to continue their story for them. The thing is, that kind of long, high-octane adventure… isn't exactly my forte, to say the very least. I'm more of a "slice-of-life oneshot" author than anything. The closest I've ever gotten to writing a story like Overlord is 2019's Gallus, which, despite only being about one-sixth Overlord's current length, almost immediately devolved into the writing equivalent of me tripping and falling down a flight of stairs. If I tried to adopt the story outright, I'd probably just stall out after a chapter or two at most, putting everything right back where it started.
Shortly after I decided not to make an offer, however, fellow writer and changeling enthusiast Melody Song expressed interest in adopting the story themselves, but admitted they were too busy with finishing their own changeling-centric series to comfortably do so.
That's where I came back into the picture. In an earlier comment from prior to their adoption notice, Disappointment remarked that their older chapters were probably in need of editing, and that they'd consider finding an editor if they ever continued the story (which, of course, unfortunately never happened). As I've mentioned here in the past, I do a fair amount of proofreading/editing on the side; with that in mind, I proposed a potential workaround to Disappointment and Melody, and (much to my surprise, in all honesty) they thought it sounded like a good idea!
So here's what's happening: Disappointment's been kind enough to transfer Overlord to my account for the time being. I'll give the story a proofread and make sure it's all set for Melody Song by the time they've wrapped up their current changeling story. Once that happens, I'll transfer Overlord to their account, and they'll finish whatever's left to finish (with some additional proofreading assistance from me if deemed necessary).
In other words, it's less that I'm "adopting" the story, and more that I'm "fostering" it. I'm keeping it well-groomed and giving it some good ol' TLC until a permanent owner becomes available.
In the meantime, I've downloaded the story in its present state to my computer, and I'm also in the process of archiving all of its chapters to the Wayback Machine as a backup. My proofreading probably won't change the story's contents all that much, but I still think it's important to preserve the story as it was under its original author's stewardship. Once that's done, I'll go through those chapters and fix the grammatical errors and whatnot that need to be fixed. Beyond that, I can't guarantee any new chapters will come out until Melody takes over, but at the absolute least, I'm hoping I can provide them with a half-decent foundation for Chapter 27. Disappointment PM'd us everything they remembered about their plans for the rest of the story, so having that to work off of will certainly help!
And, well, that's the long and short of it all. If you're one of my preexisting followers. consider giving All Hail the Overlord a look! It's a pretty neat take on how Thorax might've turned out in the "Mirror Universe" from the IDW comics, and it's got some pretty neat fight scenes to boot.
And if you're here from Overlord, I'll do my best to not let you down! This whole situation's pretty unusual, all things considered, so here's hoping I can do it and the entire transition justice.
Wish me and Melody luck!
–AP
Good luck to ya!! I always liked this story, I've always wondered how it would end and if it was going to end. Keep up the good work