Okay! There is literally one chapter left in this novel, and it's a doozy. It's about four or five times the size of a normal chapter - I might have to divide it up into multiple chapters honestly. If I do though, I won't wait two weeks between each one; I'll release them like, a day apart or something, just so that I don't break the flow too much. I'm working on it constantly, but I want to get it just right, so could be a bit before it's release. I'll update you all when it's getting close.
Thank you all for being with me on this journey so far. I didn't quite get the readership I was hoping for, but I'm still going to finish this thing. My goal once I'm done is to go back and do a major revision and clean up everything. Here's just a few of my bigger notes so far on what I need to clean up:
- Make Shae a little more likeable in the beginning. I've gotten lots of comments that he's kind of a dick in the first few Chapters, which is true, though also intentional, since I need to show growth across the novel. I think I can potentially dial back his crudeness a bit early on however - still gotta make sure readers stick around to see the change!
- Develop Asira and her relationship with Chief further. Asira was always the character I struggled with the most. I don't know why. I want to really go back through this novel, give her a unique voice and find out what makes her tick. It will be especially important for me to further foreshadow her betrayal of Chief to make that moment more impactful,
- Introduce some more important characters early on: There were some characters that I didn't appreciate the importance of. Kezzle for example defeating the fire wizard - that moment came to me on a whim. Was originally supposed to be Bez who killed the fire wizard, believe it or not. I need to go back through and give those characters a bit more substance early on to make the pay out bigger. I also want to introduce the giant Glitch Monsters earlier to make them something that the reader dreads through the novel.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
- Clean up Chapter 7: Oddly specific, I know. But the motivation for the Deadly Skulls attacking Shae's crew here were not super well-defined. I have some ideas how to fix this now that I've made it further in the novel, so I want to go back and clean it up. The Deadly Skulls are pretty important characters and I want to make sure readers know it back then.
- Fix Up Confusing Terminology: I introduce a lot of terms in this novel. Too many terms. Paths. Servers. Pirahnoids. I want to go through and simplify things so that it's easier to keep track of high concepts. Instead of travelling between servers for example (which doesn't actually make any sense), characters will instead travel between Game Worlds. And many race names will be adjusted give readers a clearer initial visualization of what they are, based on the name alone. Pirahnoids will become Sharkoids for example. Armorioids will become Insectoids. And I might make Pteranoids Birdoids, though that could complicated the name Feather Birds a bit. And finally, I'll be varying up some of the D names. Danny. DD. David. That's way too many D's. O.o
Anyway, that should give you a rough example of the things I'll be changing in the next wide-sweeping revision. If there's anything else you found confusing or annoying about that novel as a whole, please feel free to let me know! I appreciate all the feedback and I want to get this as good as possible!
Thanks again for reading and rest assured, I'm going to close this book out strong!
- Zae