Sunday, June 29, 2008

Progress Report One

I have approximately four thousand potential words for a second volume written. I have a synopsis partially filled out.

Lots of thinking and navel gazing are yet to be done.

For those who are curious, volume one is somewhat under 111,000 words long. The whole thing needs another polish or two, at least. I'm having trouble working up the enthusiasm.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, XH
thanks for the report. I am looking with great eagerness to the second volume og MERGER. I hope that you can derive some enthusiasm from me and others who really liked the characters and world that you have created, and would like to read more of it.

Good luck with your writing--I would like more progress reports as you go along.

Seren Dippity said...

Ok. What would it take to help generate enthusiasm? Are you wanting to write for a living? Is this a hobby? Are you someday hoping to be a "traditional" published author?

Consider putting a donation button up on your site. I love your story and would be willing to pay the $20 I would spend on a hardback directly to you. I think that is a better cut than traditional authors. And if only 1/2 or 1/4 of your readers donate, you can consider the others "library" readers who might be willing to send others to your site.

Not to harp or beg. (well, not much anyway) But I LOVE your story. It's as good as the Spiderwick and Lemmony Snicket.

You do as you need to follow your muse. You are the artist. I just want you to know you are appreciated!

Anonymous said...

I'm not as eloquent as some of your other readers, so all I can say is that I loved your story, because of its flowing charm, and really hope inspiration hits you hard :)

Xenophon Hendrix said...

I see that I've misled people again. The lack of enthusiasm is over giving book one the polishing it needs.

I'm working on book two, but I don't know what I want to do with it yet. I do have certain goals I want to meet: fewer boring parts than book one and a better structure are two big ones.

I also need to figure out whether I want it to feel more like a serial, a la Tales of MU, or if I want to try for a tighter plot in this volume.

Anyway, I'm working on the thing, but I honestly have no guess at the moment when it is going to start being posted.

Moridain said...

Wait wait wait... I am confused...

There was boring bits in book one?

The mundane details were a lot of what drew me to your tale. If its boring to you then by all means change it, but I doubt I am the only person who enjoyed those moments. :)

Anonymous said...

I have enjoyed the mixture of routine activities along with more tense ones where characters change or plot is advanced. The less tense ones helped build the characters, and increased my involvement for them, so when conflict came, I cared more.

Having said that, I would vote for a novel-like structure for the second volume. A somewhat more even mixture of low-key character development, particularly with humor, and more tense chapters full of conflict or accomplishment would work well. In the first volume, there seemed to be a few large clumps of low-key chapters--again good for character foundation, but this may become repetitive if continued into second volume.

Anonymous said...

If you are having trouble working up enough enthusiasm to polish Book I, then put it off. It will be much easier to do when you feel ready.

For Book II, my requests are more about Art's mom and Mary and Kirstin. Mrs. Kennedy and Danny, too. As his brothers get bigger, there should be more about them, too. You have a bunch of fine characters just straining to have more attention paid to them.

Amanda Cast said...

I wouldn't change much of anything in your story, honestly. Your mundane snippets are summeries of what happened, and in many ways they bring life to the story. Life and Deminsion. If they bore you, then take them out, but my two cents say that they serve a purpose. I mean, it's not like you wrote a chapter dedicated to how a character moves her wrist. That would be silly and boring.

Anonymous said...

@ Xenophon Hendrix: Okay, I think it's done!

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q89/IggyBork/better_pedalcar-1.png

I added an outer fairing over the wheel, made both visible wheels look more wheel-like, lowered the whole thing closer to the ground, got rid of the cushion I'd added on the back seat, and in general made the whole thing look more solid. Lowering it made it harder to get the bottom fairing in, though, and that's the only thing that's really bugging me. Well, there's more than that, but that's what I'm mentioning.

If you need help polishing, your entire readership is probably willing to help. xD

@ Amanda Cast: Actually, depending on how it was written, that might be a really interesting chapter, of any story. xD

Anonymous said...

It's been more than a month. How about another progress report? Thank you.