Still working on Plight of the Gods. I updated the timeline and made it more clear in the story how time was advancing. Also got a few more new chapters written, but there is a lot more to do. I believe I will finish one more tonight. By the look of things, both character development and pacing seems to be improving a lot. Main reason I have not released the anthology yet is because there is a good chance one or two new poems will end up in one of these extra chapters I'm writing.
I've been working on the world map, and have finally finished the next continent, Morthanis. Only Hyllutha and Hendvlask remain to be finished. I find myself watching a lot of political videos and debates on youtube and work on the map as it plays in the background. I've also completed a new cover for the Dream Dweller Archive, even though I still plan to release it for free (I think). I wanted the cover to match that of the anthology book, meaning it looks like this old mystical tome. It contains a complicated geometric design that was hard to put together. It's essentially a heavily edited alchemy circle with the edition of some eyes to continue pushing the ongoing theme of the covers. It's possible that I will sell the book at a cheap price sometime down the road, but only after I get some feedback on it.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Plans Ahead
After looking through the last book, Final Exodus, I've completed all of the major changes I needed to make to the story. I believe there are at least three new chapters and a lot of reorganized content. One of the last major problems with the story was disobeying "show don't tell". Most of the problem sections are gone, and there is no longer an info dump on the first page. Instead, the book starts with three short paragraphs before moving into the action.
At this point, I am mapping out my edits for the previous book, Plight of the Gods. I was originally going to fix this up beforehand, but so many issues stacked up that I moved on to the other book since it required less work to improve. In Plight of the Gods, I will have twelve new chapters. Not all of this content is going to be new. Many of the scenes were tacked on to other chapters unnecessarily, but now that they are separated, I need to lengthen them a bit. Other scenes are completely new, and fix a pacing issue that has become noticeable in the story. After I complete these changes and add a long-awaited climax to the second book, I should be done with the major edits. I may reread each of the books to find minor problems, but that alone doesn't take long. I can read through them pretty quickly.
Lastly, I believe it is best to publish my anthology book before the actual series. It might be strange to release all of the poems before the story that goes with them, but for publishing reasons, it is best to do this before I release The Dream Dweller Archive for free. It will be relatively easy to prove to Amazon that I own the rights to the poetry in the free book if it is first published in the anthology on their store. People sharing the contents of the book shouldn't be a problem, at least in terms of publishing. Not getting credit would certainly suck, but I can't charge for the book and implement DRM when all it really does is help my world building and provide historic context for parts of the series. Plus, it can function as great marketing while I'm still busy writing. The only downside to all of this is that I will likely need to update the anthology after all of the poetry is finalized in the story. There could be new additions, which would require me to republish the book, but this isn't that difficult.
At this point, I am mapping out my edits for the previous book, Plight of the Gods. I was originally going to fix this up beforehand, but so many issues stacked up that I moved on to the other book since it required less work to improve. In Plight of the Gods, I will have twelve new chapters. Not all of this content is going to be new. Many of the scenes were tacked on to other chapters unnecessarily, but now that they are separated, I need to lengthen them a bit. Other scenes are completely new, and fix a pacing issue that has become noticeable in the story. After I complete these changes and add a long-awaited climax to the second book, I should be done with the major edits. I may reread each of the books to find minor problems, but that alone doesn't take long. I can read through them pretty quickly.
Lastly, I believe it is best to publish my anthology book before the actual series. It might be strange to release all of the poems before the story that goes with them, but for publishing reasons, it is best to do this before I release The Dream Dweller Archive for free. It will be relatively easy to prove to Amazon that I own the rights to the poetry in the free book if it is first published in the anthology on their store. People sharing the contents of the book shouldn't be a problem, at least in terms of publishing. Not getting credit would certainly suck, but I can't charge for the book and implement DRM when all it really does is help my world building and provide historic context for parts of the series. Plus, it can function as great marketing while I'm still busy writing. The only downside to all of this is that I will likely need to update the anthology after all of the poetry is finalized in the story. There could be new additions, which would require me to republish the book, but this isn't that difficult.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
New Book, More Editing
For the past few weeks, I have been working on major edits for the third book. This book suffers from the same sort of issues that plagued the original first two. It is getting better, and will have a lot more content within it, but this has taken longer than I thought and is still not close to being done. I am thinking of completely altering the book's opening chapter, and there are a few scenes I have yet to write. Basically, I have been reorganizing the chapters like I did with the first two books, and it has caused some sections to lack content or good transitions, so there is simply more that needs to be written. I am also doing away with the dialogue segments formatted as scripts, requiring me to adjust dialogue wherever this shows up. The only exceptions to this concern the Voices that appear in the prologues and epilogues of the books. Since there are no names connected with them, the script format makes it a lot easier to understand these short sections. All in all, it is a tedious task, but I believe it will drastically improve readability for most people.
The second piece of news is that I am now working on the anthology book. It is simply a collection of all poetry from the books, including pieces that did not make it in the story. This gives an option for people who want to own and browse through a collection of the poetry, though it will not work as a full representation of the story. For the most part, it is just a long session of copying, pasting, and formatting. I think I will complete the book tonight, but it also requires its own cover.
Lastly, I am planning on releasing The Dream Dweller Archive for free on my website (https://talesofold.wixsite.com/epic-of-old). Originally, it was the fourth part of the story, but all it seemed to do was drive a wedge in the plot. The book also spoiled the fate of one of the characters, so I feel it is better to just alter the ending of the third book so that this doesn't happen. The Dream Dweller Archive is not a must-read, though it can greatly help people understand the context of the story. Even though it took quite a lot of effort to write, I feel I would need to give it out for free for people to gain interest in it. After all, it is an epistolary novel that almost reads like a textbook.
The second piece of news is that I am now working on the anthology book. It is simply a collection of all poetry from the books, including pieces that did not make it in the story. This gives an option for people who want to own and browse through a collection of the poetry, though it will not work as a full representation of the story. For the most part, it is just a long session of copying, pasting, and formatting. I think I will complete the book tonight, but it also requires its own cover.
Lastly, I am planning on releasing The Dream Dweller Archive for free on my website (https://talesofold.wixsite.com/epic-of-old). Originally, it was the fourth part of the story, but all it seemed to do was drive a wedge in the plot. The book also spoiled the fate of one of the characters, so I feel it is better to just alter the ending of the third book so that this doesn't happen. The Dream Dweller Archive is not a must-read, though it can greatly help people understand the context of the story. Even though it took quite a lot of effort to write, I feel I would need to give it out for free for people to gain interest in it. After all, it is an epistolary novel that almost reads like a textbook.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
The Website is Live
The initial version of the website for the Epic of Old is now online. You can find it here: https://talesofold.wixsite.com/epic-of-old
It is still a work in progress overall. Some of the pictures will need to be updated when I complete them (like the world map), and some of the text will likely need to be edited, especially if I change a synopsis for one of the books. There are also no links to any ebook distributors since the books are not published yet. I suspect all of these updates will be complete by next month.
Editing for the last three books is practically done. I've also gotten some feedback from beta readers for the first book and made some good changes. The chapters have been reorganized a bit so that the poetry is not so jarring by making sure it is at the beginning or end of a chapter. Naturally, this cannot always be the case, especially for the other stories, but it is better. There were also two sections where dialogue was turned into poetry and I turned it into normal dialog. This was when Helskor encounters Solomon in the beginning and when Helskor and Rhinesvelt meet at the end of the book. Doing that alone appears to improve the look of the book considerably.
For book 2, I still want to add a scene near the end with Frederik. In book 3, I need to increase the length of Philos's encounter with Helskor and I also want to write a new scene with Nezbaerth and Cyfel meeting up in the world of dreams. This would be a good way to further reduce the narration in one section while also showing natural progression of the characters. The setting should also prove interesting.
It is still a work in progress overall. Some of the pictures will need to be updated when I complete them (like the world map), and some of the text will likely need to be edited, especially if I change a synopsis for one of the books. There are also no links to any ebook distributors since the books are not published yet. I suspect all of these updates will be complete by next month.
Editing for the last three books is practically done. I've also gotten some feedback from beta readers for the first book and made some good changes. The chapters have been reorganized a bit so that the poetry is not so jarring by making sure it is at the beginning or end of a chapter. Naturally, this cannot always be the case, especially for the other stories, but it is better. There were also two sections where dialogue was turned into poetry and I turned it into normal dialog. This was when Helskor encounters Solomon in the beginning and when Helskor and Rhinesvelt meet at the end of the book. Doing that alone appears to improve the look of the book considerably.
For book 2, I still want to add a scene near the end with Frederik. In book 3, I need to increase the length of Philos's encounter with Helskor and I also want to write a new scene with Nezbaerth and Cyfel meeting up in the world of dreams. This would be a good way to further reduce the narration in one section while also showing natural progression of the characters. The setting should also prove interesting.
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Personal edits are done
I spent most of the day on further editing, writing a new scene and checking off items I had wanted to address in books 3 and 6. I am waiting to get some feedback for the last book as well as the first two, but all of the items I had wanted to change have been adjusted. The main task now is formatting. I'm still having trouble adjusting how the pictures are represented in the MOBI file. Heck, adding them correctly was a big enough problem. Point is, they shrink in size when being uploaded, so there is some kind of parameter or option I need to fiddle with.
There is also a spacing issue in some areas where it will look like I indented a paragraph twice instead of once even though it looks fine in the Word document. Either I need to comb through the demo version of each draft on Amazon, or I have to figure out a way to show where these spacing issues are turning up. I've dealt with this before years ago and I'll deal with it again.
Finally, I had a change in titles. The Planet of Whispering strife will become The World of Whispering Strife. Likewise, The Architect of Celestial Sight will now become The Surveyor of Celestial Sight. Both of these changes appear to make the titles easier to say, which is likely more important than my individual preference. I also thought about changing book 2 to The Astral Architect, but I thought it better to have the name style similar to the first story, especially since the first two books function as the same story told through differing perspectives.
I might even change the title of the sixth book as well, even though it relates to the ending of the story. The Promise of Tomorrow just doesn't seem to communicate a strong message on its own, nor does it seem to match the theme of the cover I made. Something like The Final Judgement, or New Exodus, or The Days of Tomorrow seem to paint a better picture. Seems I still have some thinking to do.
There is also a spacing issue in some areas where it will look like I indented a paragraph twice instead of once even though it looks fine in the Word document. Either I need to comb through the demo version of each draft on Amazon, or I have to figure out a way to show where these spacing issues are turning up. I've dealt with this before years ago and I'll deal with it again.
Finally, I had a change in titles. The Planet of Whispering strife will become The World of Whispering Strife. Likewise, The Architect of Celestial Sight will now become The Surveyor of Celestial Sight. Both of these changes appear to make the titles easier to say, which is likely more important than my individual preference. I also thought about changing book 2 to The Astral Architect, but I thought it better to have the name style similar to the first story, especially since the first two books function as the same story told through differing perspectives.
I might even change the title of the sixth book as well, even though it relates to the ending of the story. The Promise of Tomorrow just doesn't seem to communicate a strong message on its own, nor does it seem to match the theme of the cover I made. Something like The Final Judgement, or New Exodus, or The Days of Tomorrow seem to paint a better picture. Seems I still have some thinking to do.
Saturday, September 2, 2017
Maps are Complete
I planned to add maps to three books in the Epic of Old series, and now that is finally done. There is still considerable work to be done on the complete world map if I want that to be displayed in any of the books or a possible website I am thinking of putting together. Two continents are only half complete, and Morthanis in particular has not been adjusted at all since I decided to quadruple the number of cells/blocks used to build the map. However, all I needed to do to start work on the map pictures was to finish the coastline since the interior details would be reinterpreted with inked versions of forests, mountains, and even state lines.
Skiven and Aglodon were completed in all their detail, and Hendvlask (with its now simplified spelling) was completed enough to draw a political map of the area. With this, locations should more or less be understood. Instead of remaining a vague idea, the continent will more closely resemble a real place. The maps are also all different in style, with the map of Skiven appearing in book three and the map of Aglodon appearing in book five. It is also good to remember that there is a simple world map on the cover of book four.
As of this moment, I should be done making pictures for the series. Most of the books have three to five pictures now, providing more context for certain scenes and places. It is possible that some of these will be edited or I might make a few more at the spur of the moment. These additions evolved in an organic fashion, so there is no telling if there is more to come. However, there is a good chance that I will eventually design a website, which means I will likely add a few pictures specifically for it. As of now, I am tweaking a few of the stories by making slight alterations to dialogue, which will hint at a few things I want to communicate to the reader. The last book might require one new scene, but only if I can produce the content needed to fill the setting. The same goes for the second book, though I'm looking to get a few more beta readers to figure out if such is even necessary. Lastly, I'm looking into other forms of book marketing, such as creating a mailing list. I will add the details to the blog once I have it all figured out.
Now, getting back onto the topic at hand, this is the current (incomplete) world map I am working with:
And this is the map of Hendvlask that I just finished:
Skiven and Aglodon were completed in all their detail, and Hendvlask (with its now simplified spelling) was completed enough to draw a political map of the area. With this, locations should more or less be understood. Instead of remaining a vague idea, the continent will more closely resemble a real place. The maps are also all different in style, with the map of Skiven appearing in book three and the map of Aglodon appearing in book five. It is also good to remember that there is a simple world map on the cover of book four.
As of this moment, I should be done making pictures for the series. Most of the books have three to five pictures now, providing more context for certain scenes and places. It is possible that some of these will be edited or I might make a few more at the spur of the moment. These additions evolved in an organic fashion, so there is no telling if there is more to come. However, there is a good chance that I will eventually design a website, which means I will likely add a few pictures specifically for it. As of now, I am tweaking a few of the stories by making slight alterations to dialogue, which will hint at a few things I want to communicate to the reader. The last book might require one new scene, but only if I can produce the content needed to fill the setting. The same goes for the second book, though I'm looking to get a few more beta readers to figure out if such is even necessary. Lastly, I'm looking into other forms of book marketing, such as creating a mailing list. I will add the details to the blog once I have it all figured out.
Now, getting back onto the topic at hand, this is the current (incomplete) world map I am working with:
And this is the map of Hendvlask that I just finished:
Monday, August 7, 2017
New Chapter
A few days ago I finished one of the two new chapters of book three. The other chapter I am working on is half complete. I know the gist of the last scene I need to write, but I do not have all of the details worked out yet. I will probably complete it in the next day or two. Meanwhile, I am still working on the world map. Though I have a glimpse of the world map on the cover of book four, I still wish to provide larger pictures of the continents where they are useful. A map of Hlendvlask should be in book one, Skiven in book three, and Aglodon in book five. I am not sure if these will only include the physical features or the states and countries as well. I also have to figure out how to best share the colored world map when it is complete, though I could just provide this in the Appendix of book one.
I am also looking at my different publishing options outside of Amazon, including Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and possibly eSentral. One or two of these outlets will be reached through smashwords, but I intend to oversee most of the file conversion and distribution myself. There is also the question of whether to get ISBN's for each of the books and also whether I should get a copyright filed. All of that is rather expensive, but can be beneficial. ISBN's make the books more official and easier to find, but I also have to use new ones whenever a new edition of the book is created, which means I have to avoid editing these later on. Even if there was nothing to fix, there could easily be new information in the appendix for me to add or some kind of new picture. I have to make sure everything is truly done if I am to go that route.
I am also looking at my different publishing options outside of Amazon, including Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and possibly eSentral. One or two of these outlets will be reached through smashwords, but I intend to oversee most of the file conversion and distribution myself. There is also the question of whether to get ISBN's for each of the books and also whether I should get a copyright filed. All of that is rather expensive, but can be beneficial. ISBN's make the books more official and easier to find, but I also have to use new ones whenever a new edition of the book is created, which means I have to avoid editing these later on. Even if there was nothing to fix, there could easily be new information in the appendix for me to add or some kind of new picture. I have to make sure everything is truly done if I am to go that route.
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