State of the Story 2
This has been a long time coming, but I just want to express my gratitude to the 249 people who have followed my story. A few hours ago I finally published the final chapter of the second volume of Bane of the Old Guard. I know, the final few chapters were a trickle. I really don’t have any excuses for the lowered rate, but I guess I burnt myself out. This story was far too big and ambitious for my skills, and I think that became very obvious the more I wrote. Regardless, I wrote it anyway, and I have been quite happy with what I managed to write.
TBH I am not very good writing these things, please allow me to write as I do when no one is reading. In the style of my private notes:
Problems with the story:
1. Too many characters, introduced far too soon. I realized half way through the first volume that I should have started with only Chase, Amelie, and Alexander. Thomas would have come shortly after they left the Training Island (At a young player orphanage which Thomas mentioned early on), shortly followed by Claire and Brent, fighting some monsters together. Marlon would have have been the final addition. Looking back, this would have been far better.
2. Too many chapters per volume. I am usually quite diligent about structuring my stories. I suppose the term in the writing space is Architect. Despite that, for some reason I arbitrarily decided “50 chapters per book!” And just went with it with minimal planning. There were times I really didn’t know where to go, and I am sure if you can see the view counts you could figure out exactly when those chapters were.
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3. Too fast for me. Like many I was inspired to write a Lit RPG after reading the Last Defilers blog post about how to “get rich” writing on Royal Road. My intentions may sound impure, but really I saw the worst case scenario being that I at least got a lot of practice in. I certainly did, but I think at a certain point it became counter productive. I needed to slow down (pease don’t consider the final three chapters as evidence of that improvement).
Anyway, the things above are what I have seen as the major problems, others would be the never ending dialogue, telling instead of showing, etc etc.
BOTOG is coming back, but not today. One of the reasons I took so long with these final three chapters is that I have been having a whirlwind affair with another work in progress. This is not one for Royal Road, but just something that I must simply do. It should be done be the end of June, at least I hope. After which I will be continuing BOTOG.
WHAT WILL BE CHANGED:
-BOTOG will no longer be 50 chapters per volume, but instead 24. The chapters will be better structured, as well, with clearer arcs and character development.
-I will release one chapter a day once the entire thing is written (the 24 chapters)
Other than that, I hope you have enjoyed the ride. Though I hate it when writers do this, I think it best to consider the 100 chapters you have just read to be filed under “prologue”. It does not please me to write that, as it implies that mistakes were made, but it is just true. The past is all prologue, and what comes next will be faster, better written, and much more fun. Expect some big developments in the months ahead! When I first began planning this series I had finally caught up with One Piece, and decided that I should plan out 1000 potential chapters. I know where this story is going, and we haven’t even scratched the surface. Originally (at 50 chapters per book) I thought that 20 books would be needed to tell this entire story. Since the chapters have been reduced to 24 that number is the same, but the chapters are now cut in half, and so the max chapters for this series will only be 432 (532) if you count the first two volumes.
Well that is it for now. Thanks for your patience. If you have any questions you can find me on Twitter/X at @NedvisorBOTOG.
-Cheers
Nedvisor