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Poll: Future Path (Patreon)

Published:
2024-02-28 15:28:50
Edited:
2024-02-28 15:29:47
Imported:
2024-05
Tags:

Poll

Poll: Future Path

  • Stick to writing Grandora: 2G/week + 1LoS/month 7
  • Stick to writing Ratchetmare: 2R/week + 1LoS/month 6
  • Rewrite the Lament of a Slave. 20
  • New story - sounds interesting 5
  • 2024-02-28
  • 38 votes
{'title': 'Poll: Future Path', 'choices': [{'text': 'Stick to writing Grandora: 2G/week + 1LoS/month', 'votes': 7}, {'text': 'Stick to writing Ratchetmare: 2R/week + 1LoS/month', 'votes': 6}, {'text': 'Rewrite the Lament of a Slave.', 'votes': 20}, {'text': 'New story - sounds interesting', 'votes': 5}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2024, 2, 28, 15, 21, 7, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allows_multiple': True, 'total_votes': 38}

Content

Hi guys,

First of all, let me thank you for making me stay with writing both stories at once. It cleared up a lot of things for me. One of those things is that Grandora just doesn't click with me.

Poll: Future Path - Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/poll-future-path-99381414 

Grandora:

Pretty frustrating because at first it was my favorite story of the two (and I think yours, too.), but the more I write the more it feels like a chore (they're ups and downs). Giving it a lot of thought, it's mainly my choice to let Ferracore teach Eirlys the basics of his abilities before she goes out into the world. I limited myself to the very narrow world of caves with only two of them in. Sure, I've read books where something similar has been done masterfully, but I just have to acknowledge that I'm not at that level. 

In any case, I don't want to just give up on Grandora - it has potential, but I have to make the choice between the two stories.

Ratchetmare:

The opposite is true for Ratchetmare. You could argue that it's just one city/town but Nika has already met plenty of people. However, in a sense, I tied MC to one building - not necessarily bad, there are books that revolve around one building. All in all, I've started to enjoy Ratchetmare's writing more.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't want to make it sound like this is a chore for me - I wouldn't write stories if I didn't enjoy writing. There are just some you enjoy writing more than others, and I can't help but compare these two new ones to Lament of the Slave, which I enjoyed writing a lot - until, say, the last two months of full LoS writing.

This brings me to the question that burns on my mind more and more. What would you say if I took the plunge and rewrote Lament of the Slave? I don't mean just some editing, but a deeper rewrite, dropping some characters, writing new ones, new plot lines and so on. Would you be interested in reading something like that - basically Lament of the Slave from the very beginning? I can't imagine fully immersing myself in writing it without doing so.

On the other hand, I was recommended some reading and with that came other ideas. I may be shooting myself in my own foot here by saying it out loud, but…You see, there's a lot of stories about people from earth being abducted into a fantasy world - I was thinking what if it was the other way around - someone from a fantasy world gets kidnapped into the modern world - and get back enriched by those experiences and maybe with access to the system. I would prefer to stick with a fantasy world setting as I don't feel comfortable writing about the modern world. Plus, I feel a person from the modern world might bring more interesting things to the medieval world than the other way around.

Anyway, this is just a thought for now, I'd love to read your feedback on it. So let's get to the Poll - I'll try to keep it simple.

Feel free to choose multiple options.

Comments

Rory O'Reilly

I'm not one usually to comment on anything but I love your writing so I stayed with you through all the changes and honestly you got to write what you like writing but I do think it would be really neat if you were to take everything you've learned writing lament of the slave and flush it out and details change and it's happened you can always look at it as you know one day you know it's a book that you want to publish you're going to have an editor and there may be things you have to rewrite or just don't work that being said I love both of the new books I find both characters really intriguing and I would hope you continue them but everybody has only limited amount of energy in their life. So you should do what you love I'll be here to enjoy it no matter what.

Nirrvash
>>130937669

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, much appreciated. It's great that you like all three of my stories - to be honest it bolstered my confidence and it brought some relief that whatever decision I make won't be so bad - indecision is hell so I hope to make my decision as soon as possible. :D

Scribbleykins

Voted 2 and 3, either's fine. 4 and 1 are fine too, I just didn't want to dilute the vote more. Point is, anything is fine as long as you want to write it. I would like to point out that you've not really 'stuck' yourself to a single home/setting in Ratchetmare, as there should be plenty of reasons why an alchemist might need to be on the move. Such as: they're the only one skilled enough to administer potions and salves where the application is of a more gradual duration; forays into securing truly rare reagents necessary for their experiments, what about auctions or expeditions, eh?; attending important social functions (important for getting highbrow, moneyed customers, that is); going to research symposia that might see them highly engaged in ways not seen in the shop; forced to deal with rivals' attempt at sabotaging their business; etc and so on. And for all of these they may like an assistant/drudge to go with them - and there would of course be a caveat in the contract that allows for this which Miss Ratchmare did not realize at the time of signing. Things she must aid with that just must be done, even if said alchemist is a notorious homebody - it might be all the more interesting as their own stress could be greater (in various ways) than Ratchetmare's at the though of having to leave the shop/lab - and be hers to alleviate and/or compound! And realize he would not be all that capable of doing it without someone like her around. That said, it is not - for both Ratchet and Grandora - a bad thing to set your story with some serious settings constraints. Constraints are generally helpful, too many possibilties can leave the head spinning. Constantly drip-feeding new characters and new surroundings in a story can be hard to manage too, both on writer and reader. The problem with Grandora sounds like you can't feed us all the details on the character's journey of inner self-exploration in a timely manner without making it into an awkward infodump or 'seem to easy', so the period spent underground goes long and feels samey. Meanwhile playing off of this new critter that's in the process of digesting the memories of the old critter, is tough, because they're so powerful and overbearing they can't really hold an interesting conversation (I DISLIKE the empasis on CERTAIN words thing TOO, tbh, mainly because I don't entirely get the logic behind why some words are thus emphasized) - have you noticed this? Ther discussions have overwhelmingly been about power usage, not about, say, more mortal concerns. Which, fair enough, maybe a behemoth in the fullness of its power wouldn't care overmuch over those. Which may be the problem. It would make more sense (to me, and perhaps it is a cliche you want to avoid) to apply the rewrite hammer on Grandora, and make the behemoth NOT a huge beastie, but a more child-like one. Still maybe the size of a bull or something and scales the toughness of steel, vague memories of the past one, magic abilities on par with the existing behemoths, extreme youthful vigor, etc., so not a pushover on mortal scales, but somewhat vulnerable and way more inexperienced and in the process figuring things out and growing themselves, alongside the main character. Asking questions back, not just feeding vague ancient wisdom! Maybe eager TO leave the underground, as opposed to being content staying and gnawing on the local minerals, wheras Miss ex-slave knows it'd get attacked real quick if it went aboveground to plunder treasure chambers for the 'good stuff' it senses around (even if that'd end poorly for most who tried to stop them), and trying to rack their own head for what to do and how to re-introduce a growing titan to the world as its first, er, 'official' representative. A behemoth whose presence may already be or will soon be known/felt in folks regardless of her wishes, since people change in response to it just being on the friggin' planet. In fact, the inciting incident to leave could be getting discovered by the local slave miners who are upset their slaves are growing scales and the veins they're mining are, shall we say, getting gnaw'd on and not in fact understanding the exact nature of this strange 'lesser' beast, since behemoth deaths are so rare and everyone in fact presumes a new one will spring forth fully formed (like your initial story). It'd lead to a better interplay between the two, I think, and give reason to why this powerful being is being kind to her (curiosity, imprinting, kinship, sorta like with the world tree in Lament) and in the future will (presumably) be gracious with and listen to her (when it wants to). Because she was the first there in the time of its (most recent) youth and taught it things its vague ancestral-ly memories did not! That would also, I think, solve the lack of agency on the main character's part - currently they're just sitting in a hole trying to learn how to use a power new to them and living off of meltyrocks. Now they get to go 'Augh, you can't just kill ALL the slavers, that'll bring that other behemoth down on our heads! I think! Maybe! I DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT - but oh, yeah, let's free the slaves and teach them to eat rocks, that's fine. WAIT WHY ARE YOU HANDING OUT THE ENTIRE SLAVER TREASURY AS FOOD NOOOOO' You don't have to reduce the time spent underground, chapter-wise, just make it more interesting, ne?

Nirrvash
>>131234151

Damn - I was lost for words for a moment; horrified a little, too. But as I began to read, and I read it twice (edit: three times), I realized that it was not the extensive criticism I feared, but but well-intentioned and especially well-thought-out tips and points. Forgive me for not responding in the same extent. You make a good point that in Ratchetmare the limitation to one building is not so much a limitation. Actually, in the last chapter - I'll release another one tomorrow btw - Nika has already been sent to Brass Street, and likewise the alchemist can send her further into the city on errands. The problem with Grandora is a little deeper - I didn't quite nail the relationship between man and giant beast. Honestly, I don't think I even portrayed the size of Ferracore well. In my mind the Grand Beasts are massive - like bigger than mountains. Whereas the Ferracore I wrote is more like the size of a large house, which would go well with your suggestion of making him more child-like learning alongside Eirlys. In fact, all your suggestions to Grandora are great, I really like them - very well thought out. Thanks for taking the time to do this, greatly appreciated. Now we'll see if I can work any of that into the story. :)