Children of the First

So last night I wrote that the chapter was not up to snuff and would go up today. Well, I addressed the issues, but the more I thought about it (and the more I talked about it with Whitney--friend/editor/sounding board) the less I liked it. It was okay. It was clean, decently written, and had some funny bits--but, they weren't that funny, and more importantly, it wasn't going anywhere. It didn't advance any meaningful part of the plot, and it ended up feeling like filler in many ways. I don't want filler, and I don't think you do either. The last chapter was fun because we got to see another of Lenis' critters, but that's about it. It didn't advance the plot or character development in any real way, and I think the story was coming close to losing momentum and falling into a personal drama or "soap" mode. That works for some webnovels/comics (Tales of MU and Questionable Content would be good examples), and when it works it can be great, but that's not what Children of the First is. I can't afford to get stuck writing filler just so we know what happened every day; shit's gonna happen, people! No time to waste! I never intended to keep the pace this slow past the first week of classes, but we're through 20 chapters and it's only been four days of story time, so I've decided to scrap this chapter and write a new one--one that I actually had planned, that advances the story, and that I'm excited about. I wasn't excited about this one. If I'm not excited about it, why should you be? So, to wrap this up; I had planned on a few more chapters of Shawn's day-to-day life (finishing the first week of classes), but it was in danger of getting stagnant and, to put it bluntly, fuck that. We're jumping ahead. It's go time. Hold on to your butts.

Sorry this is going up so late. I was trying to work out how I could format it to look like it was from a scroll or something, but it was taking too long and the way I was trying to do it would have involved a big picture in the post, which would be a problem for a number of reasons. I may still edit this over the next few days, but I wanted to get it up on schedule, so here it is!
Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone had/is having a happy holiday season.
Rock on. \m/

---

Read the rest of this entry »

So here's chapter twenty, right on schedule... at 3 a.m.
So, holiday stuff: I'm going to try to do at least one or two regular chapters between now and January 2nd, with bonus stuff going up on update days that lack chapterage (or chapterosity, if you prefer).
Thanks for reading!
Rock on. \m/

---

Read the rest of this entry »

So if you were following the twitter, you might have heard that I was on schedule and this chapter would be up yesterday. Well, I was half right. I was on schedule, and even though I wrote this yesterday, my new two-chapter-a-week schedule dictates new chapters will be on Tuesdays and Fridays (or the early morning of Wednesday and Saturday). With that in mind, I restrained myself and saved it for today. I am keeping to the schedule. It is good. Expect it to continue. Woo.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and special thanks to those of you who have reviewed CotF at the Web Fiction Guide (I will update the bonus points shortly).
Rock on. m/

---

Read the rest of this entry »

So chapter 18 is finally here, all the way in from the Fiction Farm. For those of you who haven't heard via twitter or the blog, I recently finished out my last semester at Tulane University, and anxiously await my diploma. That means (hopefully) more time to write, which means more CotF: more chapters, more art(?), more stuff in general. Yay!

A couple little commercial things:
If you haven't done so already, you might be interested in stopping by Built of Rag and Bone, my new blog. It has things!

Also, if you've liked what you've read and want to help Children of the First keep growing, spreading the word is a great way to do that. Why look, I do believe that's a digg badge, isn't it? Why yes it is!
Oh and a StumbleUpon button as well? What are the odds? (both are for CotF main page, not the chapter.)

Thanks for reading, guys.
Rock on. \m/

---

Read the rest of this entry »

So I'm in this creative non-fiction workshop and our last assignment is to write about whatever we want. Naturally, I'm going to write an article (or piece, story, essay, whatever) about writing on the web, specifically webnovels and other webfiction (i.e. not just another thing about blogs). I think I'm going to focus on the growing community of readers and writers and see where that takes me. It might take me to the relationship with traditional media, or to the future of blogging, or somewhere completely different. I don't know. I do know that I'll draw on my own experience, but that I'll need more than that. I'll need you. I want to know what you read, why you read on the web, how long, ect. Basically, anything you think or feel about webfiction that you want to share would be great. Any little anecdotes about writing on the web would be greatly appreciated as well. (Don't worry, I won't quote anyone without permission. This is just to help me work out what I'm going to say.) Thanks!

AUTHORS NOTES AND SUCH
(I have nothing new to say; the chapter took forever and you guys rock.)

---

Read the rest of this entry »

I don't have anything due for class the rest of this week (except for reading some of E.B. White's essays, which isn't exactly an arduous task), which would normally mean I have more time to devote to the internet in the next four days, but unfortunately (or I guess fortunately for my sanity) this is the week I'm running the light board for the Newcomb Dance Recital. That means that I'm in the theater for many many hours every night, which is when I'd usually be writing. I'll probably have a good bit of downtime, so i'll see what I can get done in that time, though I doubt seeing me bent over a pad of paper and ignoring my cues would inspire the Prof to be generous with my grade. So, you could skip all that and just read this: I will do my best to get the next chapter up by Thursday, but it means working while the sun is up, so I can't promise it wont take until the weekend. I will, as always, do my best to get it up as soon as possible and keep you guys updated if anything changes.

A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. -Thomas Mann

New chapter? Hell yeah, new chapter!
Sorry it's been a while since the last one; stupid "life" got in the way of writing.
So I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. It ended up taking forever and—surprise, surprise—I didn't get as far as I thought I would (in terms of the storyline/ plot). You would think I would have learned how much I can fit into a single chapter, but no, I haven't.

On an unrelated note, I recently built a new website for the 1718 Reading Series, and I think it looks pretty good. You can check it out at SeventeenEighteen.com.

As always, thanks for reading and for rocking. Hardcore.

---

Read the rest of this entry »

So here's a little bonus thing since I probably won't have time to write the next chapter until early next week. I drew a rough map  for my own reference after the first couple chapters, and I've been thinking of doing a more polished version for a while now. I may do another in the future, or color this one, who knows? Thanks for hanging around, folks.

On a different note, I wanted to mention that there are now CotF banners and buttons (for links/what-have-you) available on the Support the Sitepage. I've also (just now) decided to give bonus credit for every new link using the images, so... yeah.

---

Read the rest of this entry »