Friday, September 25, 2009

... proof of passage

I've been told that the first proofreading pass on COT-R has finished, which includes some actual editing too. There will be a second pass and then maybe a third beyond that, at which point the proof draft will be sent to me for my final revision edit.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

... this time I'll actually listen

I put up a new poll concerning a genuine curiosity. Some polls I put up just because I'm curious about what people think, and don't really intend to act on the results of the popular opinion. In this case I probably will.

I intend to divide COT2 into books just like how I divided COT-R into six volumes. The COT2 books may end up being more thematically linked than the COT-R ones, or may not. We'll see how it goes. As the question in the poll states, what kind of stories do you want to see in the first book?

The first story already deals with a new character and a new plot, with only a small link to the original COT. I would like to continue doing this for the next few stories, but I know that readers can sometimes be frustrated when reading the next book in a series only to find that none of the familiar characters or stories seem to be present. So, make your opinions heard.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

... contravention

Last night I dug up and dusted off the first chapter of Contravention of Thieves, (COT2), and revised it into Story 1: The Nightbringer. The revisions entailed some heavy edits to the first section, which was written shortly after the original COT was finished, a new final section, and the removal all sections written from the point of view of other characters, dealing with other plots. The goal was to create a short story told from the perspective of a single character, with a clear beginning, middle, and conclusion.

This sets the tone for what COT2 will be. Rather than a 24 chapter 900 page epic, it will be a series of short stories that eventually flesh out a bigger picture. Doing it this way allows me to focus on each idea as a separate unit, developing each plot independently of the greater whole. Though the scope of COT2 will be much more vast than COT (dealing with dozens of principals over the course of several years) the methods used to convey it make the project much easier to tackle.

Some additional stories can still be excavated from the discarded COT2, but the majority of it was made irrelevant by COT-R.

Of course, COT and COT2 are still on the backburner. I just did this as a break from the job hunt, so don't expect Story 2 to show up any time soon. :)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

... an inch of movement

Yes, a new post after all this time!

One of my proofreaders has made it as far as one third through the story, and she seems poised to finish the whole thing unless something crazy happens. While I am currently very preoccupied with the employment effort and cosas 3, having a set of proofing notes to spearhead the next revision is a very good step forward in the finishing process.

I also set up a new poll, just for the heck of it.