Update coming later today - want to ask you guys a question.
Added 2021-12-06 22:22:44 +0000 UTCHey guys, update is coming a bit later than usual today - should be late in the night, work has been crazy. Chapter is mostly done though so it's just a matter of revising it :)
A few things I wanted to talk to you guys about:
1) Book 1 is out on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Duellists-Road-Shortcuts-Fantasy-Adventure-ebook/dp/B09MJ5HNDN/ If you have kindle unlimited(even just adding the novel for free to your library helps the algorithm!) or want to support the novel, I'd really appreciate it but don't feel forced to - you guys support the story plenty already! (paperback is coming soon but I don't know how soon yet)
The book is nearly identical to the free version you guys got a bit earlier, with the addition of one epilogue that I wrote last minute - just Carr and Valle sharing a few drinks and talking for a bit to finish up the book. (If any of you guys forgot to download the book earlier, feel free to message me)
Also, just leaving a review or rating really helps with the algorithm too.
2) Book 2!
A few fun things about this. So, we're nearing the end of the tournament arc now as you guys can see. That said, due to book length, I'm thinking of maybe splitting this current book in two after some heavy rewrites just for the sake of better pacing. If you guys have any takes on this, I'd appreciate it.
So right now, book 2's length would be kind of absurd. I've added a few chapters in the rewrite, and as you know by now if you read the Amazon release, I don't really edit chapters so much as rewrite them and generally make them longer. The result is that book 2 would hypothetically be twice the length of book 1 which uh, is not good.
Book 2's changelog is looking like this so far:
- Isabella's character arc was refined a little.
- Isabella has a new fight. Carr has a new fight as well.
- The Executioner's arc is expanded (I might cut this - don't know).
- Carr and Valle's rivalry is expanded on a lot more. This shouldn't surprise you guys if you read the book 1 rewrite(either the free version I put out before the kindle release or the kindle release upon Amazon now).
- We get a flashback chapter of the Emperor's Murder, from Nevada's perspective. A lot more focus is given on the murder case now because I don't want to infodump everything later on.
- Nevada gets a lot of changes to her character arc because she is really backloaded for development and uh I know she's not a fantastically interesting character so far and it's a big ask to be invested in her (or even entertained) the way she's currently written.
- More focus on Gilder and Max's relationship, plus more on Gilder in general.
- The Executioner's confrontation with Fake Carr is expanded on a lot.
So what I'm thinking right now is to have the confrontation with Fake Carr (which has been rewritten entirely) turn into the climax of book 2 and end it there. The biggest benefit of that is that it would allow me to not have to hurry to finish the T O U R N A M E N T A R C.
...And, to be honest, uh, the tournament arc is currently (I've written up to chapter 78 - posting chapter 79 on Patreon later tonight) 80 thousand words long. So just the tournament arc is already longer than the first Harry Potter book by itself lmao so I think that could work for slightly better pacing if I could separate that into two books.
What do you guys think?
3) Bonus Chapter Progress: looking like the bonus chapter I mentioned a while back should be arriving around the 20th, I'm enjoying working on it :)
4) I've become quite used to making pdfs/ebooks of the series pretty quickly now, would you guys like it if every month I made a free pdf/epub/whatever format with all currently available chapters to read (updating every month with the new chapters)? I would be happy to do it for you guys, just not sure if that's something you'd like.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble, see you guys in a few hours with your new chapter :)
Comments
Thank you for your input, I honestly really value people's input on this so I appreciate you took the time to respond :) And yeah, that is absolutely a downside of the serial release format. By nature the finished product is going to have flaws because with a release schedule of every 3 days and writing it serially, I'm not going to have the benefit of giving the whole story a onceover until it's done. So I don't want to George Lucas special edition everything, but there is something to be said about making the second draft just *better.* But I don't want to make the audience feel like things they like have been changed, so it's a really careful balancing act. One thing I definitely pledge to always keep doing is making the serial version available for download as well, because I don't want to go full Lucas and erase the original version haha. The positive side of things is that the serial format does allow me to get feedback in real time about things that are and aren't working, which is really helpful. But yeah I definitely know what you mean - I have been trying to keep changes mostly as "normal second draft changes while still not making anyone who read the first draft feel betrayed" as opposed to...well, you know. And it's a difficult balancing act, but I hope I'm doing well. And if not, I'm always open to feedback :)
2021-12-07 20:55:43 +0000 UTCA bit of a late reply, but go with what you feel comfortable with. :) Book length is secondary to pacing and a satisfying ending. Pick the point where you feel least uncomfortable. (Side note: your rewrite challenges are a definite downside with the serial release format, since you can "George Lucas" your fanbase with the edits, though I don't believe you have; I think decades of time between the original and edits of Star Wars was the larger contributing factor, as his state of mind has naturally drifted.)
David Ellis
2021-12-07 20:44:50 +0000 UTC
