egathentale
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Just a little poll
🕑 Added 2024-01-19 18:55:44 +0000 UTCHello, dear readers.
I'm not going to mince words here: I feel like I'm having a bit of an adverse relationship with the Simulacrum as of late. It's not a straight up writer's block, but close enough, and it stems from the pacing.
Right now, we are still in this "calm before the storm" segment, and when I started this post-Elysium arc, the core concept was to have Leo be overwhelmed with all of these different events and plots going on in parallel all at once, which would cause some things to slip through his fingers until it would all add up into a big kerfuffle, leading us into the endgame of the series.
However, I might've overdone it a little, because I introduced so many plots (Valentine's day, Savir doing her thing, Mensah doing his thing, Moose and Mike doing their thing, the homunculus project, expanding on the arch-mages and the Assembly, Angie and Josh, the potential assassination plots, Percival, The Predator Moon, Tajana, her Fauns, the thing going on between Naoren and Rinne, and so on and so forth), that I'm the one starting to let things slip thought my fingers instead. I set all of these up, and I really, really want to resolve all of them... but I feel that doing so would take at least ten to twelve chapters (read: about five months of updates) of mostly characters talking and scheming without any major shift in the status quo.
Now, granted, I'm technically incentivized to do that (five months of slicey-lifey updates -> five more paychecks), but I feel that the pacing is going to suffer if I do that. As such, I would like to ask about your opinion on the matter. Should I just go with my original plan and keep the plot slow and steady, with some minor excitement (like a small Bel episode) here and there, should I increase the pace a little while letting some of the plot-threads fall to the way-side, or should I cut the Gordian Knot and trigger the arc finale early? Or alternatively, should I do the latter in a way that it shunts all these plot-threads into the future, and then dedicate an entire mini-arc (about the length of the hot-springs episode) to Leo getting serious and systematically taking all of them off his bucket list in preparation of the last arc?
Please do vote, and/or give your opinion in the comments.
Thank you for your support,
Egathentale
Comments
giom
Voted 1 because I like slice of life in general (I think most of us wouldn’t be here if not) but I fully agree with Danielle. Do what’s best for the book and what’s most fun for you as a writer
basilevs
While I agree, that quality is what keeps me reading. I'm one of those readers who skips action scenes without reading, so slice of life chapters would be appreciated.
Solaris
I also agree with Danielle and webstrand: choose the pacing you are satisfied with, without burning yourself out. Personally I tend to prefer a steady pace with some slice of life, so i would prefer option 1 or 4 but don't force yourself if you want to cut some of those plots!
Ragav Kumar
I agree with Danielle in general... but I will admit that I'm currently just waiting for things to become interesting again, which may well be an artifact of the serial publication model. So I, personally, wouldn't mind a pace increase.
webstrand
Honestly I've been happy with the pacing. Don't burn yourself out, though, with the slow grind. Writing is supposed to be fun for the author too! It's unfortunate, I think, that webnovels are so resistant to editing, or you could go back and prune or combine plot points.
thaughton2
My comment only exists to say I'm taking the 5th option that Danielle provided.
Danielle Warvel
I honestly don’t feel like I can make an informed vote without knowing what your end goal or idea to resolve the arc is. I think the best constructive advice I can give that wouldn’t be guesswork or completely arbitrary is to pace things with a future book format in mind. Do whatever pacing will best fit the final product. You put these up on amazon as well and want to make money selling the ebook format as well, and from my perspective, I’m paying for the privilege of seeing the first drafts and communicating with you and a bunch of other fans, not have you carter to me or sacrifice quality and possible future earnings for my sake or out of fear of losing my support. I’m already a super-fan. You have my loyalty, and wonky pacing for a while isn’t going to change that. So I think your best choice is going to be what gets you the most long-term profit by making a product You’re satisfied with.
