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Waning Heart progress + writing ideas.
16 years ago
Journal Entry Over the past week, I've managed to get done a significant amount of writing on my NaNoWriMo story, Waning Heart.
In addition to writing, I've also managed to split it up into chapters (which can be difficult sometimes), with each chapter around 5k - 6k words in length. I have 15 chapters fully written right now and it is probably going to end at 16, meaning I have just one more chapter to write.
By the time that's written, it will actually be almost exactly as long as Middle of Nowhere is word-count-wise, pushing that 100k mark. But you know? I'm really happy with how the story turned out. I'll hope to have it up by Christmas or New Year's Eve at the latest. I still need to edit it, proofread it, and do some thumbnail art for several key chapters.
One thing that I'm also leaving open the possibility for... it's kind of a neat idea, actually. Well, I've made it no secret that the story contains rape and abuse. It's an integral part of the story because it's what the main character goes through early on and it chronicles her struggles moving past it and stuff. Not really spoiling, but more of warning, heh. However, clearly not everyone will want to read that much pain. I don't blame them. It actually works out that Chapter 9 - Chapter 16, though being mostly sexless, make for a REALLY GOOD STORY all on their own. If you read a summary to get an idea of what happened before, you could read the second half of the story and find a rather happy story. The first half is more along the lines of a dark prequel, then, hehe.
I think that's kind of neat how it works out. The second half of the story, which involves contests and love and stuff, really makes me smile. The whole story is pretty emotional, but thankfully a lot less rollercoasterish than, say, Fleeting Friendship — Waning Heart starts with the worst and gradually works to the best. But leaving the option to sort of pick up on the story halfway through and get another enjoyable story... hmm... I don't know, it could be rather cool. ^^;
Thoughts on that? If you really can't stand reading stories containing rape or abuse (from the victim's perspective), would you be likely to want to read the second half of the story if it only contained references to it and was light and happy? I'd love to hear. :3
Anyway, um, two more thoughts I had during all of this...
After finishing Waning Heart, I'm going to write another chapter or two on Middle of Nowhere because it's been so long. But I've also decided that I'm going to end the Middle of Nowhere story far earlier than I was expecting, ending it whenever Tommy and whoever else (that part's the mystery) eventually leave the sheltered land. You knew it was going to happen, leaving, so don't worry too much, but that is going to be the end of Middle of Nowhere. It'll probably work out to be 14 or 15 chapters total rather than the 25 or whatever I sort of had in my mind.
Bad news? Nahhhh~ Rather than pump that many chapters all into one story, I'm going to split it up. Middle of Nowhere will continue on as a series, with Middle of Nowhere just being the first story of the series. The next story in the Middle of Nowhere series (a series I'm going to call the "Nowhere" series) will be Nowhere Like Home. You can take a guess at what that means, though I'm not going to spoil that much more for you.
That way the title will match it a bit more, and you won't be reading something like "Middle of Nowhere Chapter 21" or whatever and it'll probably be "Nowhere Like Home Chapter 6" instead. Keeps it a little more organized.
Um, but again, does anyone have any objection to my methodology here? I'm not going to stop the series, just conclude one part of it and leave the second part with a fresh start, sort of. Maybe make it so anyone could jump into it without reading all of Middle of Nowhere...
Right... um, right, hehe.
So about that second idea. I think I'm just boring you all with all of this talking about writing and stories and stuff, so if you've read this far, take this cookie *hands you a cookie*. Now um... it's actually a pretty cool idea. ^^ I'm going to go through and make another new series called "The Making Of" series. I'm going to basically be writing up a bunch of commentary on some of my stories, writing my thoughts on the characters from more of my own perspective, why I thought them to do this, how and why I came up with their names, plot ideas I never used, early beta versions of the stories (I had 3 unfinished stories with a Treecko and Mudkip in them before A Friend Indeed!), stuff like that...
They wouldn't really be actual stories, but just give you some ideas of exactly what was going through my mind while writing them. And it could give you another perspective on the story in general!
Probably a stupid idea, but I'll probably write it anyway just so I can always remember for myself, haha. :p
That's all. Sorry for rambling!
In addition to writing, I've also managed to split it up into chapters (which can be difficult sometimes), with each chapter around 5k - 6k words in length. I have 15 chapters fully written right now and it is probably going to end at 16, meaning I have just one more chapter to write.
By the time that's written, it will actually be almost exactly as long as Middle of Nowhere is word-count-wise, pushing that 100k mark. But you know? I'm really happy with how the story turned out. I'll hope to have it up by Christmas or New Year's Eve at the latest. I still need to edit it, proofread it, and do some thumbnail art for several key chapters.
One thing that I'm also leaving open the possibility for... it's kind of a neat idea, actually. Well, I've made it no secret that the story contains rape and abuse. It's an integral part of the story because it's what the main character goes through early on and it chronicles her struggles moving past it and stuff. Not really spoiling, but more of warning, heh. However, clearly not everyone will want to read that much pain. I don't blame them. It actually works out that Chapter 9 - Chapter 16, though being mostly sexless, make for a REALLY GOOD STORY all on their own. If you read a summary to get an idea of what happened before, you could read the second half of the story and find a rather happy story. The first half is more along the lines of a dark prequel, then, hehe.
I think that's kind of neat how it works out. The second half of the story, which involves contests and love and stuff, really makes me smile. The whole story is pretty emotional, but thankfully a lot less rollercoasterish than, say, Fleeting Friendship — Waning Heart starts with the worst and gradually works to the best. But leaving the option to sort of pick up on the story halfway through and get another enjoyable story... hmm... I don't know, it could be rather cool. ^^;
Thoughts on that? If you really can't stand reading stories containing rape or abuse (from the victim's perspective), would you be likely to want to read the second half of the story if it only contained references to it and was light and happy? I'd love to hear. :3
Anyway, um, two more thoughts I had during all of this...
After finishing Waning Heart, I'm going to write another chapter or two on Middle of Nowhere because it's been so long. But I've also decided that I'm going to end the Middle of Nowhere story far earlier than I was expecting, ending it whenever Tommy and whoever else (that part's the mystery) eventually leave the sheltered land. You knew it was going to happen, leaving, so don't worry too much, but that is going to be the end of Middle of Nowhere. It'll probably work out to be 14 or 15 chapters total rather than the 25 or whatever I sort of had in my mind.
Bad news? Nahhhh~ Rather than pump that many chapters all into one story, I'm going to split it up. Middle of Nowhere will continue on as a series, with Middle of Nowhere just being the first story of the series. The next story in the Middle of Nowhere series (a series I'm going to call the "Nowhere" series) will be Nowhere Like Home. You can take a guess at what that means, though I'm not going to spoil that much more for you.
That way the title will match it a bit more, and you won't be reading something like "Middle of Nowhere Chapter 21" or whatever and it'll probably be "Nowhere Like Home Chapter 6" instead. Keeps it a little more organized.
Um, but again, does anyone have any objection to my methodology here? I'm not going to stop the series, just conclude one part of it and leave the second part with a fresh start, sort of. Maybe make it so anyone could jump into it without reading all of Middle of Nowhere...
Right... um, right, hehe.
So about that second idea. I think I'm just boring you all with all of this talking about writing and stories and stuff, so if you've read this far, take this cookie *hands you a cookie*. Now um... it's actually a pretty cool idea. ^^ I'm going to go through and make another new series called "The Making Of" series. I'm going to basically be writing up a bunch of commentary on some of my stories, writing my thoughts on the characters from more of my own perspective, why I thought them to do this, how and why I came up with their names, plot ideas I never used, early beta versions of the stories (I had 3 unfinished stories with a Treecko and Mudkip in them before A Friend Indeed!), stuff like that...
They wouldn't really be actual stories, but just give you some ideas of exactly what was going through my mind while writing them. And it could give you another perspective on the story in general!
Probably a stupid idea, but I'll probably write it anyway just so I can always remember for myself, haha. :p
That's all. Sorry for rambling!
I'll read the entire story regardless, heh, so honestly I can't really give my opinion for just reading half of it. I guess for me personally, half a story (even if the first half is more of a setup to the second half) would leave me wanting to read the first half. So maybe people that initially only set out to read the second half would go back to read the first half to... "complete" it. But, never know until it happens =) I need to start proofing mine as well. I've got one more final tomorrow and then I have a month-long break ^^ Time to get my story ready as well =D
Who knows hehe.
And yeah! You've gotta get yours up! I want to read it. :3 Congrats again on your smashing victory! :3
you know what you should do? more stuff like A Friend Indeed. That was by FAR the best yet.
although... wouldn't it be an interesting plot twist if A Friend Indeed actually took place in the Sheltered Land? BEST SEGWAY EVARRR!
Really, finding a way to merge your best story with your main ongoing story would be just GENIUS.
[/trying to squeeze a treecko in somewhere]
But it's funny you mention that with A Friend Indeed and Middle of Nowhere. Even though that's unfortunately not the case (A Friend Indeed took place in Hoenn, though the Pokemon clearly didn't know what "Hoenn" was). However, the funny part is that I was so incredibly close to tying in Fleeting Friendship and Waning Heart.
You see, both take place in Sinnoh, and location-wise they could have theoretically run into each other. I opted against it in the end, but it was seriously being considered, which would have been rather neat. ^^;
hmmm... i'd be willing to do an art trade for it... pm me it you're interested ^..^
*Cough*
I platonically love you.
Looking forward to reading this, etc. etc. I love you, something something. You're awesome.
*Noms cookie*
Yay!!! Can't wait for Waning Heart sounds good, and more Middle of Nowhere!