*loads up blog one day*
*stares at header*
You know, I wonder how many people know who that
purple-haired guy is supposed to be. I
mean, they should if they clicked on
the I Hraet You tab instead of just
looking for more Final Fantasy posts. Then again, I guess it’d help if I uploaded
some more chapters. Maybe give them a
reason to read through my wares.
Speaking of which, wasn’t I supposed to upload
those chapters at some point?
Speaking of which, wasn’t I supposed to write more
chapters?
*stares at screen*
Oh FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUnuts
Okay.
Soooooooooooo…I may have dropped the ball on I Hraet You. Like, how long
has it been since the last update? How
long has it been since the last chapter?
Probably at least half a year in the former’s case; probably several
years in the latter’s case. That’s not
great. In my defense, I did write up
some new chapters that could, theoretically, be uploaded right after this
post. And it’s not as if I’ve got a
crippling case of writer’s block or no plan on where to take the story. Honestly, I have enough of a roadmap in place
to take me through to the last chapter.
That’s kind of my thing. My
execution might be hit-or-miss, but at least I can plan ahead.
With that in mind, it’s been too long since I’ve
put out anything -- to say nothing of the other work I should’ve put in by
now. Gotta make those edits. Gotta update the character page with new
art. Gotta put out recaps. Gotta release notes and inside info. Gotta promote my wares. Gotta do this, gotta do that. The most sobering part of being a blogger --
and writer, even more so -- is that it’s not enough to just write. You probably have to put in more work on what
should be trivial stuff than the content.
You know. The thing that actually matters.
It should go without saying that I’m not about to
give up on I Hraet You. I wouldn’t be making this post if I was
waving the white flag -- if only because I’m too stubborn and delusional to
stop. On the other hand, what I’m about
to say next is going to sound like I’m giving up.
Here’s the question I have in mind: what if I
started over on the story?
One of several reasons why progress on IHY stopped is that I had to put it on
the backburner to work on getting published -- which is to say, I put some
serious time and effort into Dead on
Prime. I don’t blame you for not
knowing what that is -- besides
a winking reference to a Queen song -- so in a nutshell? It’s my baby.
It’s the novel series that I hope will open the door to my future as a
writing hero. Granted that’s the same
aspiration I had prior to starting this blog, but hope springs eternal. Six installments. Roughly 500k words altogether. A story that pushes eight disparate
city-dwellers into a race against time to stop the awakening of the lord of the
dead. It’ll be a fight to the finish, in
more ways than one.
As
I’ve said, Dead on Prime is
actually the revival of D.O.X.,
another story I wrote for the sake of my wild ambition. (And D.O.X.
in turn was the end result of drastic edits to the original story,
Dead Over Two.) It took me about two years of off-and-on work
to finish Dead Over Two, and two more
years of the same to edit it into D.O.X. Comparatively -- since all three versions
share the same general plotline -- it took me about nine months to…well, maybe
not 100% finish the story, since even now I can think of a couple of edits I
could make. But I’m in a much better
place now than I ever was. Burning down
and building up my baby was the absolute best thing I could ever do. I even dubbed the total revamp “Xrding”,
after the recently-released Guilty Gear
Xrd -- AKA the franchise I made several references to throughout Dead on Prime.
How fitting is it that the release of Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator has made me
think about starting over once again?
Granted I can’t quite saddle all of the blame (such as it is) on ArcSys’
pride and glory. I’ve been revamping my
characters and their stories behind the scenes for months now, so it was only a
matter of time before I did the same to Lloyd and crew. And with those new designs comes a need for
edits -- alterations to make the story fit the character, and vice versa. To be perfectly honest, there’s one character
I’ve revamped about six times in the past month and a half. I literally went to bed one night, satisfied
with the edits I’d made…and then as I set my head on the pillow I thought “Hey,
wait, what if I did this instead?”
I’m surprised I didn’t scream “DAMMIT!” into my
pillow with enough force to blow me a foot into the air. But I sure did think it.
In any case, it makes me wonder what an Xrded IHY would mean. Like I said, doing that to Dead on Prime is one of the best
decisions I’ve ever made (which is admittedly part of a short list). Stronger characters, a denser narrative,
greater thematic heft, a better-defined setting, and of course, improved
execution; to put it in video game terms, the hypothetical list of patch notes
would show buffs for everything and everyone.
Honestly, I’ve already thought of things that I could do to change up --
and inevitably improve -- IHY. With enough follow-through, it could lead to
a true revolution -- if not in the online space, then at least in the quality
of the story.
But we are talking
about the online space, which is where the complications come in. Obviously I haven’t committed to anything
yet, even if the ideas I’ve got bumping around makes my mouth moisten. Still, let’s say I did decide to start over
-- if I Hraet You were to become We Hraet You. What would that mean for the old
version? What would that mean for the
nearly one hundred chapters I’ve already got on tap? What would it mean for the plotting I’ve
already got, especially since it’s not like I got even remotely close to the
ending?
I don’t know.
I guess the pivot point of the discussion is whether or not people
actually care about IHY. I assume that the number is frighteningly
slim; it’s been entered into a web serial novel catalogue (and rated with 4 out
of 5 stars!), but my guess is that the number of people who actually visit that
site regularly is horrifically limited -- now more than ever, if the site’s
lost its sway in these modern times.
Plus, when I was uploading IHY chapters a couple of days every
week, Cross-Up wasn’t even a blip on the radar.
It’s still not ultra-huge, of course, but I can tell you that the
numbers behind the scenes are A) at the highest they’ve ever been right now,
and B) they’re exponentially greater than when chapters went up.
I guess I should thank my post on mai waifu
Mercy Overwatch for the
surge. Although for whatever reason,
there are a LOT of people that want to know how to make a good version of Attack of the 50-Foot Woman. Can’t say I blame them; I’ve always argued
that there need to be more gigantic women in fiction, and offering up something
on that front is on my to-do list.
But I digress.
The way I see it, there aren’t a lot of people chomping at the bit to
see the continuing adventures of Lloyd and his family (and his burgeoning
harem). Part of that is likely because
back then -- and now, albeit to a lesser extent -- I was too far on the fringes
of the internet to have my story reach people.
Part of that is also because the story wasn’t up to par in terms of
quality; the review I got on that site blasted me for needing edits, which is
totally fair. And of course, part of
that is because now that I’m almost a hundred chapters in, it’s a lot harder
for newcomers to make the dive. Can I
really expect people to do an archive binge at this point, given that my
obscurity was off the charts and my writing started out in a rough spot?
Optimistically speaking, it’s possible. With enough effort online -- built on a
foundation of new, top-shelf content -- IHY
could make a grand revival and reach the heights it deserves. On the other hand, WHY could make for an even grander
revival. As a fresh start, it could
be the kick in the arse so direly needed.
Starting from chapter one! Higher
quality all around! The chance to reach
out to people, grab them by their collars, and force them to read about a guy
with as much common sense as the average pigmy marmoset!
Really, though, there are other ways to make it
work. As a wise man once said, work
smarter, not harder.
Here’s the thing: if this is going to succeed, I
need to put up a better effort. And part
of that effort would mean taking advantage of the tools at hand -- something
that may have sunk me from the outset with IHY. So here’s what I’ve been thinking. If there’s one thing I can count on with this
blog, it’s for people to come crawling out of the woodworks whenever I snipe at
Final Fantasy or Squeenix-related
productions in general. That’s not
always the most comforting thought, given that I’d rather gush than rage -- but
it does suggest that, hey, maybe a blog heavily focused on video games should focus on video games.
Is there room for my original content? Yeah, probably. But I’ve noticed long before this point that
the Blogger platform allows you to register and run multiple blogs at
once. So with that in mind, maybe it
would serve me better to move IHY --
or alternatively, take WHY -- to
Tumblr. I’ve seen plenty of responses
(likes, notes, reblogs, etc.) on other Tumblr sites, so getting a piece of that
might serve me well. Granted it wouldn’t
be an instant road to success, because I’d have to learn how to use
Tumblr. I’d also have to figure out how
to bring people from their online abodes over to mine -- and beyond that, I’d
need to create enough of a lure to make sure they stick around. It’s probably easier than I’m making it out
to be, but I won’t pretend like there isn’t a learning curve involved.
So I guess the next step would be making sure
content actually goes up, and goes up consistently. If you’re reading this, then you should know
by now that -- barring some major catastrophe, or me going on a short hiatus --
Cross-Up gets two posts a week. Every
Monday, every Thursday. Content
available by the time you wake up in the morning. (Though that might change if I decide to
switch the “go live” time to noon or the evening. We’ll see.)
I’m not exactly starved for content, given that I try to have content
prepared in advance at all times.
The question then becomes “where does the original
content fit on the timeline?” Back in
the day, I also uploaded a couple of chapters a week -- but I’m thinking that
in the future, I’ll pare it down to one.
It’d certainly make things easier on me.
I’d be able to work and upload stuff at a steady pace, rather than rush
out content and make my face wrinkle up like a raisin to pump out
chapters. Theoretically I could do that -- i.e. upload about 4K
words’ worth of story every week, assuming I had enough of a head start -- but
I’d rather not. It’d be WAY too easy to
botch it, or fall behind schedule.
You know what they say. Slow and steady wins the race. And the internet.
It’s worth stressing that nothing is set in
stone. Unless I feel like I make enough
progress in turning IHY into WHY -- a legitimate reason and/or
genuine argument to throw out the old stuff -- then in some ways, this post is
null. I’m thinking about what I need to
do, and what I should do; nothing would make me happier than entertaining
droves of people with my writing, but I need to do the right thing.
And yeah, I’m sure anyone reading this is probably
thinking “do what’s right for you”, but I don’t really buy into that. My goal is to do what’s right for others --
and for the story, not for me. Have I really gotten everything I can out of
it? Have I maximized its potential, its
impact? Have I made a good enough
argument for why it should exist, let alone be read by others? I’ll need to think about it in the weeks and
months to come. Depending on the answer,
it could mean the difference between letting it stay dormant, and turning it into
a glorious phoenix.
Oh wow, two Mega Man X bosses in one post. Super-lucky.
And that’s pretty much where I stand. Obviously, IHY (in either form) isn’t going to come back yet. I need to put some more work into other
blogging stuff down the line -- and more immediately, I need to go over Dead on Prime to start the submission
process anew. There are some changes
that I feel would raise my chances of success, so it’s critical for me to focus
on that a little more than not at
all. There are a lot of things that I
want to do -- and need to do -- so you can bet I’ll be keeping busy from here
on.
In the meantime?
Feel free to weigh in. Any
suggestions? Recommendations? Any content that you want to see out of
me? Now’s the time to make a statement,
at least before I my next great deed has me taking a lighter to the short list
of my good decisions. I’ll welcome any
input you offer. After all, you can’t be
a hero if you can’t serve the people.
And trust me: that, more than anything else, is exactly what I want to do.
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