This journal is very, very important and I highly recommend you read it entirely if you're a fan of Seventh Ring.

I've pretty much sat on this decision (and journal) for a week and debated on how I wanted to handle announcing it and all. I discussed it with my peers and IRL fans of the story, and basically, I've decided that if I want other people to take the Seventh Ring project seriously, I need to take it seriously as well.

I realize where I want to go with Seventh Ring and what I ultimately want to do with it. You guys may recall that I posted a poll several months back asking if you guys could only have ONE thing, what would you choose? Seventh Ring as a novel, or a graphic novel? Surprisingly (to me), the poll was nearly 50/50, with a novel version having only one more vote than the graphic novel.

Personally, I voted for a graphic novel, as I'm a visual person. I majored in Animation in college, for crying out loud, and I see the story playing out very cinematically in my head while I'm writing. So I thought that was the direction I would go -- finish writing out the bare bones of the story just to have it finalized in my head and ready for creation in a visual format.

But I've changed my mind.

If I am completely honest with myself, I do not think I am capable of making Seventh Ring into a graphic novel. It would take YEARS to do, and I doubt it would ever ultimately be finished. I wrote the first chapter of the story in August 2011, so almost 4 years ago, and it STILL inspires me to finish it and I have not lost interest. But it's been 4 years and I'm not even finished with the written version yet, so how long would a drawn version take me? The longer the project drags on, the sooner I may begin losing interest and wanting to explore other stories. I have them, but have kept them hidden in the back of my mind because Seventh Ring was first and deserves my attention. I worry that eventually, I could come to resent it for stifling my other ideas. It's difficult for me, as a storyteller, to stay focused on one story for so very long, and I don't want to push my luck.

I also considered the fact that I will be 30 in August. I'm fortunate to have developed a career that allows me to work normal hours and have weekends and evenings off (and also offers me job security). But as I get older, life will happen. In the next few years, we would like to potentially have a kid. That could change my evenings a bit and make working on a graphic novel somewhat more difficult, haha.

So the story must be written as a novel and published, ideally within a year (meaning I want to be finished writing it in a year). I feel it is the only realistic way for me to tell it, as writing takes far less energy and ability for me (personally) than trying to draw comic panels. I'm not experienced enough in comics and have, admittedly, allowed my art to stagnate over the years. I feel I've fallen behind, and the idea of drawing a space ship or robot or anything technical or extremely complex intimidates me too much to even try. It might sound cowardly, but again, I'm trying to be realistic with my own expectations. I know my limits, and most importantly, I know myself. I've lived with myself for 30 years and honestly told myself (and my husband) last Friday that a graphic novel will never happen of Seventh Ring. Not by my hand. But the story MUST be told and the project MUST be finished. I refuse to let it die. A novel. I can do that. It will be hard and will require almost a complete rewrite of probably all the chapters, but the story itself is finished in my mind (meaning all the dots connect).

Here is where I feel you guys may not be entirely happy with me. I gave myself the entire week to think about this. At first, I was going to tell you all that I was planning on no longer uploading the story online, as I worried about copyright issues and someone trying to steal my work. Slim chance, but even the chance scared me. Then I talked it out and decided I will continue to provide the "bare bones" chapters, as I always have, where there's not a lot of meat, just the story (I need to write them out anyway). You guys may have noticed I never went into much detail about what the characters looked like or their environments, because I was relying on people to look at the artwork for reference. So for now, I will continue to write the chapters out like that, then go back and rework each chapter and add the meat to the bones. I will continue to share the story with you all via those bare bones chapters, but...I will stop sharing the chapters online once I reach a certain point (maybe around chapter 35 or so. There will be at least 40 chapters, I think).

I'm warning you guys in advance because I want you to be prepared and know what to expect (and why). Like I said in the beginning of this journal -- if I want people to take this story seriously, I also need to start taking it seriously. Ideally, I would like the following/fans of Seventh Ring to grow as I work on it and produce more art and things on the side. Because I would eventually like to sell copies of the printed book, if I tell the entire story online for free, there's not much incentive to buy it, you know? The book itself will NOT be the same as what I share online, so even long-time readers may enjoy owning a copy and seeing it in a more "professional," well-rounded format. What I share are raw bones -- no editing, meat, fur, etc. The book will be much more descriptive and ideally, detail-rich. My writing has improved over the last couple of years, so I will apply that skill to older chapters, too, and give them a facelift (and have my personal editor help me out, too).

Speaking of "building up followers and hype," I realized what I can do. I will create character sheets, full biographies, character line-ups, illustrations of scenes, and, yes, comics of scenes that happen. The comics, however, will be short and only a few pages, max. I still like the idea of Seventh Ring in a visual format, but not ENTIRELY. I will still share short stories that will act as "bonus material" and not actually be covered in the book. Things like that to keep the art and information flowing without revealing the story itself and to ideally keep people interested in one day owning the book and seeing how all these pieces fall into place.

So. I'm sorry if this is at all disappointing and what I'm hoping is you guys will continue to support and cheer me on as you always have. I'm hoping this compromise is somewhat reasonable, as I really did try and take you guys into consideration with this decision and whether or not I should stop posting chapters all together until the book was done. That just didn't seem right or fair, especially since it could take a year to do, you know? So I'll share up until the "last season" of the story, then focus entirely on finishing it and adding in the meat. Once the book is ready for potential publishing, I will put all the bare bones chapters I've shared over the years into storage and possibly share the first revised chapter as a "teaser" so you guys can see how the rewrite sounds (and hopefully, you approve). Then I announce how you can buy a copy of the final book in all its final glory!

I'm not pretending like this will be a short or easy process, of course. But I like to plan and know what needs to be done next. And this seems like the next step in Seventh Ring's life as a project. I'm still excited about it and plugging away at Chapter 22. I'm going to try and bust them out as quickly as I can, though I may not be able to totally focus on it until mid-April or so. I'm looking forward to this though and am happy I've finally decided on a path I can take with this project. Something realistic and finite instead of this story just dragging out for years and years with no end in sight. I think that was starting to overwhelm me, so this realization happening couldn't have come at a better time.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to share. c: - goes back to working on the outline-