It's been one year since I began this crazy project, and I'm very close to being done. When it began, I sought to tell the story of a character that I created in 2003. But as I began to piece together the world, the history, and the people in it, I quickly discovered that the story was growing far larger than I had anticipated. Soon I decided to tell the story not from one point-of-view, but several. Eventually, the cast would grow to seven main point-of-view characters, and each has a supporting cast around them. Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me.
My goal has always been to tell a big story, but to make it as lean as possible. Personally, it's hard for me to read anything that drags or goes too heavily into describing the world or the characters, or whatever. I wanted to make my world and characters feel real, but to also do it without cramming fluff into each chapter to make it seem longer. So far, I think I've achieved that quite well.
My writing has taken a dramatic transformation. Coming from a browser-based freeform roleplay community, I thought my writing was pretty good. However, I quickly learned that book formats are much different. And so over the last twelve months I have basically learned how to write all over again. Reading my first chapters became downright painful, and many of my chapters have been re-written wholesale. But the experience has been rewarding, and my skills continue to grow and improve by the day.
Overall, I'm excited to finally be approaching the end of book one. Yes, I am planning on doing multiple follow-ups, and have already began to envision how I want book two to look. But first thing's first. My goal is to seek traditional publishing first, and I will give it ample time. I don't expect offers of representation to come pouring in overnight. But should I fail to gain any ground, I have considered the possibility of self publishing, but that's another discussion for another time.
I hope you are as excited as I am to bring this story to the world!
-Chris
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