no problem i'm probably the worst at replying on ao3 lol. good luck with that! i know i didn't mark every detail but i tried to be pretty transparent with what i revised. maybe someday haha! writing this is more emotionally taxing than anything else right now tbh, this series has a lot of baggage after so long and part of the revision is kind of me trying to reframe how i think about it. i'm also questioning the direction i planned for the series overall and as a one person team it's a lot to consider and a lot to rewrite lol. the next chapter is around 2/3 finished so i'm hoping to get that done soonish and we'll see what happens after that. (i wanted it up sooner...and to finish decaelogical findings...but 2024 hasn't gotten off to the best start unfortunately lol.) also fun fact: the original pilot for the series was only around 1k words. why did i decide to multiply that tenfold?!
and yeah lmao i realize the deca fandom is a teeny corner of it but i don't want to take any chances! take your time, i'm sure the wiki is a lot of work too :)
I'm sorry your year hasn't gotten off to the best start, and I hope it only gets better from here. And damn, that's insane, you really do put so much on yourself. I know it's nowhere near the same but I finished a series I'd been writing for a year recently, and I remember how difficult that was to let it go after so long- I felt like it defined my writing in a way, you know? And the more I wrote, the more I was aware that it wouldn't last. I just felt so full of anticipation? Like I was never quite sure what I'd write next, even with a plan, it was still kind of a burdern knowing that whatever happened next, it would be all up to me. I would have to be the one to write it. I can't imagine how much you must feel- you've been doing this for what, 5 years? I suppose all great work comes with a cost of sorts, and you can't love doing something and not feel strongly about it. That's the burden of a storyteller- only you can decide who lives, who dies, who eats icecream and gets therapy and falls in love and falls away. It's beautiful and exhilerating, but it's terrifying, too.
thank you. i definitely know what you mean, i've finished a handful of longterm projects myself and it's always bittersweet. it's weird to put so much work into something for so long and suddenly it's over. next month will be 5 years since i posted the first chapter, i think. the entire first series was written well before i ever started posting, though. at this point, the expectations from my readers and from myself are really bothering me the most. i have a passion for these characters but i lost my passion for the story and i can't find it. i don't even really like the series right now. any of it. i don't like the corner i'm currently written into and honestly, i don't understand or remember half of it. but this isn't like when i finish a novel and i can go back and do it over again because i'm the only one who's seen it. this is published. people have read it. some of them love it. some of them know more about it than i do, i think. so i need to move forward. i'm just trying to figure out how.
If you don't like where the series is now, it's okay to change it. There's always a way- you could do a timeskip to mark the change in the story, or if you want to tell the same story but don't like the way you've planned to do it, you could try outlining the main points in a different way than you usually do, such as using a mindmap or a timeline, to see what it makes sense to change slightly, and what needs to stay. And, I don't know if you do it this way already, but maybe you could try doing what you did for series 1? Writing chapters just for you, then rewriting them if you don't like them, instead of posting them as soon as they are done. Your fans love your story, but you've been on hiatus before- I'm sure people can manage waiting so you can create something you like! At the end of the day, you're the writer. If you say you need to change the story a bit, or need longer between chapters, then people will understand and respect that decision.
tysm, it really means a lot that you care and respect me taking my time. i am trying to outline differently right now but it involves taking notes on every chapter i've written so far to establish where i'm at which is very time consuming lol. and no, i don't do it that way anymore. i think i started writing and posting chapters semi-immediately in the second half of series 4. the fact that my schedule is now nonexistent is why i initially never wanted to do that but i guess i changed my mind for some reason LOL. my output used to be a lot higher when i started writing the series too, though. i just feel bad it's almost been a year since i posted a chapter, i guess, and the next chapter is largely intended to be comedic so i don't foresee it being a grand comeback haha but i'll shut up now <3
Of course! Hopefully more people will join the wiki and help with some of that burden (by writing plot summaries for the chapters). It's okay if you aren't as productive as you used to be. Things happen, yano? And don't worry, I'm sure this fandom of yours will lap up anything you're happy to share with us (:
Comment on The Deca (Series One)
Victory (Barnable) on Chapter 2 Sun 28 Jan 2024 07:49AM UTC
Comment Actions
z_in_a_blue_box on Chapter 2 Sun 28 Jan 2024 09:55AM UTC
Comment Actions
Victory (Barnable) on Chapter 2 Sun 11 Feb 2024 05:45AM UTC
Comment Actions
z_in_a_blue_box on Chapter 2 Sun 11 Feb 2024 10:47AM UTC
Comment Actions
Victory (Barnable) on Chapter 2 Thu 15 Feb 2024 06:58AM UTC
Comment Actions
z_in_a_blue_box on Chapter 2 Thu 15 Feb 2024 09:18AM UTC
Comment Actions