Writing Journal: I'm done drafting the first two installments of Book IV of The Adjusters, except for the sex scene at the end of #41, and it's showing me some things that seem to work and some that don't. And I've got about 3/4th of the story line for Book IV nailed down. I'm just not sure how it ends—well, I do know how it ends as far as setting up Book V and within the larger story line, but not so much the arc-specific threads.
So it's been almost three weeks now since I've posted the second half the last Charlie story—Charlie and the Convent of Oblivion—and a consensus seems to be emerging from the comments I've received so far. Basically, those that came to the story from the perspective of The Adjusters were a bit disappointed (possibly too strong a word) and felt that the story distracted from the main story line and that it might have been better to just get on with Jenn's adventures directly; while those that came to the story independently of the serial liked it better (when they got past the god-awful first section).
That's very good to know. Usually, I don't question too much how stories are received. Some work, some don't. I'm okay with stories not working when I've tried to do something different, and sometimes they don't work not because of anything I've done, but just because somehow, the story didn't quite come into the world at the right time or in the right place. I don't really lose sleep over it.
The Charlie stories are a bit different, though, because I would like to know whether I should continue with the idea. See, my original thought—before actually trying it out on the world—was for those stories to be a way to tease the reader, giving them a glimpse of what was coming down the pipe, but without actually revealing enough to spoil the story. But it's not quite working out as planned: the last story was a bit too long to serve as a teaser (it was freakin' 30000 words longs... Yes. I count them) and all in all it might just be too distracting to be effective. And I'm not basing this solely on readers' comments, but also on my own sensibilities looking back on it. Don't get me wrong: I like those stories. I'm just now sure they work as I intended them to work within the larger picture. So I don't know. Right now, I'm leaning towards not having further Charlie stories within the serial. (Thankfully, they're not actually required by the plot after the second one—I know, because I create the plot!)
On a different topic: last weekend, as you may have noticed, I've reposted the first book of The Adjusters in the new HTML format that I'm trying out for posting stories. Mostly, it's to get the UTF-8 encoding for quotes, em-dashes, and accents, and to get italics. No one's reported any problems, so I'm continuing to convert the rest of my stories as well the rest of The Adjusters.
Stories for this week? Nothing particularly caught my eye, but I did notice that Bluedragon seems to have a new entry in his An Ordinary Sex Life series: An Ordinary College Sex Life 3. I haven't started reading it yet, because it's a bit like getting into a new volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, namely you have to remember a boatload of backstory. But I feel I should let everyone know, since it is a pretty good series.
danny123 -
ReplyDeleteI would suggest doing the Charlie series as a completely separate story. I enjoyed them, but admit to being very anxious to get back to the Adjuster storyline. Even though I am not a writer, I understand the need to try something new. Also, for whatever it is worth, I would further recommend having a dual story going on in each installment or alternate between installments, one dealing with Jenn and the other dealing with Daniel. Just to watch how the two are doing at the same time. Just some thoughts.
Yes, exactly my thoughts - Charlie story is a nice read by itself, but not getting monthly dose of adjusters cause me a severe withdrawal syndrome))
ReplyDeleteMy preference & comments :
ReplyDeleteGreat job with the series so far. Definitely one of the all time classics. Enjoying the peeling away of layers as we learn more over time.
Charlie is a distraction (barely read them at all), rather you get on with the main storyline without the teaser(s). Charlie would be good to add as an addendum after it's all done to flesh out the whole thing. And add in the xmas specials.
New formatting is good.
Appreciate that you can only write so fast (and each chapter is quite long). Looking forward to the rest of the story soonest.
The routine of a sex scene (at least 1) every chapter is a bit formulaic and when reading right through in one sitting when it's all done might not work that well in terms of making a "classic". This obviously works well in the monthly chapter release schedule. May need to do an overall rewrite (shudder) after it's all done to make it work better as a single piece of writing.
A difficult thing to do with a long story is to hold together all the plot lines and story. I got the feeling of some contrived plots coming together late in the last book, sort of trying to make Dan Brown mini climax with each chapter . Impossible to say whether it works at the end as only you know the big picture. Philip Jose Farmer had this problem with Riverworld series as have many otherwise excellent authors. Best of luck here!
Really only nitpicking, keep up the excellent work.
> The routine of a sex scene (at least 1) every chapter is a bit formulaic and
Delete> when reading right through in one sitting when it's all done might not work
> that well in terms of making a "classic". This obviously works well in the monthly
> chapter release schedule. May need to do an overall rewrite (shudder) after it's all
> done to make it work better as a single piece of writing.
That's a fair point. Reading it all at once is a different experience than month by month. But I do enjoy my sex scenes—part of the fun each month is coming up with it, and fitting it in the story. (Sometimes they're forced, granted, but less often than I feared it might happen.) I think I'm okay with the story not being a 'classic". After all, it's almost impossible to predict that sort of thing—it's really out of my hands.
The thought of doing a full revision of the whole thing at the end is, indeed, shudder worthy...
Not personally a fan of the Charlie stories. I get the concept but find it a bit too jarring in the context of the overarching storyline for my taste.
ReplyDeleteThat's just me though, others obviously have varying opinions. Either way I'm looking forward to the continuing Adjusters story.
Love the comments on AOCSL:3. As a fan of both bluedragon and GRR Martin, I totally get where you're coming from. I also have an irritating tendency to confuse characters from the AOSL series with those from Nick Scipio's Summer Camp.
Fox
> I also have an irritating tendency to
Delete> confuse characters from the AOSL series with those from Nick Scipio's Summer Camp.
Ha! I so can see that!
There's going to be a Book V?
ReplyDeleteJust how long is the entire thing going to be? :)
> There's going to be a Book V?
DeleteYup. Tentatively called "Intermezzi" where I'll try yet again something different.
> Just how long is the entire thing going to be? :)
Wish I knew. As I mentioned in the past, I know the story line, I know how and where it ends (so it's not like I'm headed into the great Darkness), but I'm just not able to predict the length of it. I try very hard not to make it more complex than it has to be—it will already be complex enough—and I hope that that will keep things from becoming too too crazy.
Did I mention how grateful I am for everyone's patience about this?
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I'm going to digest it further, but things do point to having the Charlie stories, if there are more, being "out of band".
ReplyDeleteThe fifth chapter of the Convent of Oblivion was supremely magnificent. The vivid description of the blood fever remains some of the best prose I have seen in the whole MCS.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI enjoyed the Charlie stories, but I'm not sure if they fit well within the main Adjusters story line. In a sense, it'd be better to either make them shorter, with the clues made a bit clearer, or maybe present redacted versions so we see them as Daniel and Cindy are interpreting them (and making guesses) with fuller versions published separately so they don't affect the flow of the main story
ReplyDelete