I feel like book 2 plot Is is moving very slowly; we're already on chapter 10 and we still haven't found a way to light the lamps. Every time we find something that seems like the solution, it ends up being nothing. Many new characters are introduced but they have little or no relevance to the plot. There are several subplots that seem to have been forgotten, and with so few chapters left, I don't know how this will end without rushing everything.
I want to have faith that in the end everything will work out without needing to rush things, but I've seen so many stories that end like that.
I cannot state how much I agree with you. Warning: Read on for some author woes. Otherwise skip. This isn't going to be very kind to my own work. Which, I know I'm not supposed to do and just pretend like everything is exactly how I want it and that I have a plan, but let's stop pretending I'm ever going to be professional about that.
Full transparency, I have not enjoyed writing book 2. There are parts of it that I really like, and I like my characters a lot. But when I started book 2, my stepfather was diagnosed with a really aggressive form of cancer. He was gone within 11 months of this diagnosis. I went back and forth out of state to try and help my mother during that time and writing took a huge back seat. It also felt really overwhelming as I was navigating shadow grief. Making decisions became nearly impossible which is unfortunate given that I was writing a choice based game. Then, anything that I did try to do, was not met with a good reception so I would change things halfway through because I felt like I needed direction and thought who better to give it to me than my own readers. That was probably one of the biggest mistakes I made during this process because once that was my mode of operation, I lost my own plot.
Cut to my stepfather then passing and what was maybe the longest and most triggering year of my life. My husbands grandmother passed at the same time and then my own grandfather passed three months later. I was a mess. Life was suddenly incredibly hard to navigate and the Night Market became a job. Not a passion. It was sometimes the only thing putting food on my table and I just had no sense of what I was doing anymore because I couldn't really make sense of my own life or head.
The things going on in the U.S is also a constant thought in my mind. I have mixed race children and a minority husband. Fear for him was a very real thing every time he left for work. I homeschool my children as well due to the mass shootings in our school systems and the lack of proper education that I have seen within my district. So, my time also became limited as I became a teacher to two young kids as well.
I have only in the last month, maybe two, felt like I've been able to breathe again. I have done a lot of thinking on the Night Market and there is a lot I would like to change. I have considered pulling it and doing a Kickstarter so I can redo the game to what I would like to see it be, but I have also had to weigh out the backlash that might have? Pulling it when we are so close to the end feels unfair to everyone in a way? I would really like to put together a campaign like I did for the end of book 1, however, and be able to know I can work on it without worrying about paying the grocery bills.
I want to change SO SO SO much. There are entire swaths I think can be tightened up and shortened. I want to be more concise with the RO's problems. Artisan Alley I want to be a presence but a presence that your RO's are involved in as well. That way it doesn't feel so split. There are absolutely no interactions between the RO's and I HATE that. I fully plan to say fuck it and write Milo how I want to write Milo. I want to get dark with Hazel. I want to explore religious trauma. I want to dive into the Ancients in a way that adds to the story with a deep richness as opposed to this thing we sometimes mention like its a big deal but its really not. I also want to put more lore within the beginning of the story to allow for less explanation when we hit some of the more secreted areas. There should also be entire paths that you can skip if you want and that are more present for flavor than anything else.
This book has been a long and not fun journey. I am not proud of it. But I also think I can make it into something I am very proud of and can stand by again. It's just trying to figure out how to do it while putting groceries on my table for my kids and me.
My most favorite thing in the world to do is write. I like writing poetry here and there but I love writing fiction. I've been writing fiction since elementary school (like 3rd grade i believe). I love being able to create a whole new word, situations, characters and just staying as far away from real life as possible.
Writing was (and still is) my escape, the way I cope. When I'm writing my fics/stories/books the real world is far away. I like to keep the two separate as not to taint any of my writing.
I've written urban teen, urban adult, sci-fi, horror, romance, comedy, interactive...name it I've done it from writing in composition notebooks passing it as I changed classes in middle school excited to see what comments my friends left in there after they read the new chapter I'd written, to writing on CBW (chris brown world) to Elite Creativity to BBS to FFN to wattpad, to tumblr to self publishing ebooks. All because I love it and it makes me happy, everyone enjoying it and getting paid to do it is just sprinkles on this sundae.
I say that to say, if you love writing don't let anyone or anything taint it for you. Don't let lack of interaction steal your joy for writing. There's no fic/story too short or too long and don't let anyone tell you any different. Write for you. And if you feel like you can't, step back and take a break so that you do not push and push and push and ruin your love for writing.
So i’ve added the bonus work, and the Christmas work to a hidden collection as i think i want to delete them, but i don’t necessarily want to delete them right this second.
The Bonus works was only created because i wasn’t sure about how i wanted to go about sexual content and the story rating in regards to my main fic.
it was going to be along the line of a fluff and smut and bonus scenes work for pieces i wrote that i liked but didn’t feel like was necessary for the plot of the main story.
But now that I’ve found a good middle ground for how far i want sexual scenes to go for the story, i think i want to add the fluff scenes to the main story at least, and if i do so, i really won’t need the bonus works at all anymore.
Also to be even more transparent, i’m just not the happiest with how everything was initially written. im a little embarrassed with how terribly written and all over the place i feel both the bonus works and holiday piece are, but i truthfully don’t have the energy to rewrite them to match how my current writing style is anytime soon.
idk.
once again i won’t delete anything as of right now, but they’ll definitely just be hanging out in the hidden collection until i make up my mind.
