Scions of Gaea Going Into Hiatus

For a number of reasons, really. But mostly I started it when I was in an emotional bind - I mean really wound up about it. Thing is that I ended up writing Ravens of Eternity instead of this novel in the meantime, and writing that story allowed me to sort out through the majority of those emotions I was dealing with.

Writing the opening act of Scions of Gaea has literally polished off the rest of what remained. And so now I feel much lighter. Prior, I had serious driving needs to get the story on the page, and that's no longer present when I write this story. 

Which means that it can't be reflected back onto the page. And if it's missing there, then you won't also experience it. 

I had thought to change my story, to better match my emotional state now. But what I feel conflicted about these days are vastly different from when I first envisioned this story. Changing it would only make it a muddled mess.

Which makes me wonder what the point of continuing is. I don't think there is, even if everything in it is interesting and has something to say about the state of our world. I honestly believe that there's real potential with the story, but I simply can't write it at this time. 

I am at peace with some of this, and would rather tackle the themes in a story that's much more riveting to write.

Besides that, the story itself hasn't gotten much attention. Very few are picking it up and reading, which is another good reason to stop. This isn't as important as my first point, but it's worth mentioning. A final, and equally small reason, is that I feel a bit stretched thin. 

Sometimes I feel as though focusing on one thing in particular makes me truly excel at it. But once my attention goes in different ways, everything I work on starts to get diluted. So putting the novel into hiatus also allows me to better manage my time and my mental energy.

Which means that I can spend more energy working on the print + eBook version of RoE, and streaming on Twitch. Which is a good thing - being able to focus on those two specifically means better products in the end.

And this may not be the end of this story - it may very well come back in the future, but in a different format or media altogether. Let's see where things lead for now.

Vol 2 Cover Preview

 

It's almost complete, though I still have a bunch to do. In particular, I need to redo some of that linework. If you look closely enough, some portions are very wobbly. I also need to thicken some of the character's silhouette lines, to make them pop more. I might also increase their sizes a bit, to give them even more prominence.

I'm also reconsidering the violet background, as the image itself is completely overwhemled by the color. I think I'll try to switch to something more orange-ish, or reddish. Something that denotes more of an emergency situation rather than a somber stealth crawl.

Public Drive + Patreon Page Shutdown

It's now October and I have finally shut down my Patreon page. I had noted previously that I made it specifically for the free Webnovel audience, but since WN themselves kicked out the free readers the page went nowhere.

Although I very much appreciate the support I've received there, I know that it isn't going to grow any time soon. So thanks very much to those who were subscribed on there - your support has meant the absolute world. Apologies that it had to go down.

If you still wish to support my endeavors, I have a Ko-Fi that you can find here. There should also be a pop-up section in the bottom left of this blog that you can pull up if you want. 

That said, the notes that were once exclusive to my Patreon backers are now publicly available for anyone to see. It has things relating to the stories I've written such as character notes, story beats, powers, world lore, and so on. Some really interesting behind-the-scenes kind of stuff. For example, I have an Inventory spreadsheet for my main character in Scions of Gaea. 

Here's a sneak peek:

I don't know about you, but for some reason reading stuff like this really piques my interest. Seeing the nitty gritty and random details that the actual story doesn't delve into is satisfying to me. Its kinda like looking at diagrams and vehicle cross sections - there are details in them that most don't see. And that kind of insight is just amazing to me.

Hopefully, these notes do something similar for you as well. 

Here's the link:

CeritusOrbis' Public Drive

Anyone with this link ought to be able to browse through everything that's inside, or at least anyone curious enough to do so anyway. Feel free to share it, (along with my stories, ofc)

Schedule Going Forward

 So I've finally moved again, though things are still in transition and not quite fully settled in. But my office is more or less set up and I've been posting chapters every week again. I just want to update everyone on what my plans are going forward, just so everyone knows what's down the line.

Apologies again for all the delays thus far. If I could have avoided them, I would.

The first things I've done is reassess what work it is I need to do in general. Here's that list so you can see as well:

• Publish Ravens of Eternity
• Write Scions of Gaea
• Stream for Exposure
• TikTok for Exposure
• Invest in Ads

Basically, I need to create, and I need to market. There's no two ways about it, and I have to do both. I can't just rely on rankings and popularity organically, and I have to do extra in order to make a better living.

And now that life is settling back down and there's less to interrupt it, I can focus on getting this work done as best I can. 

I've been toying around a bit with the schedule I'll be sticking to once everything kicks off. Or trying to, anyway. No doubt things will adjust as everything progresses.

But here it is so you can take a look:

Apologies as a schedule isn't terribly interesting to look at, but I figure that by sharing this you can see how much time I plan to pour into everything. That said, as long as I stick to this, I'll be able to release Volumes of RoE about every two to three months while still writing SoG. 

As for Volume 2, I plan to get it out in October. I was thinking I could get it out by the end of September, but that turned out to be a really generous approximation, lol. Everything in the house was packed away in boxes including my PC. That took a week to get transported, then another week to find in the boxes themselves. I almost thought it was lost. Kind of a debacle all around.

But that's now in the past, the office is now running, and this schedule is the future.

*EDIT: adjusted the schedule again - and it'll change even more as time goes on, lol

Completed the First Edit Pass for Volume 2!

So, I finally got through the majority of rewrites and cuts for Volume 2. Gotta be honest - I didn't think it would take this long. But that's because of how poorly formatted those original chapters are. Just rereading them caused me to do tons of overhauls on the text. They seriously needed it. IMO, so much of the work I did back then was just... bad.

Much of it was honestly hard for me to look at, and I couldn't just leave them the way I had originally written them. There were parts that I outright threw away, haha. I was all, 'I made that? Blech.'

Yeah, lots of older sections were relatively clumsy and poorly-written. Too much exposition and not enough character. At the time it made sense to write them that way, considering what story beats I was attempting to get through. Plus the daily chapter format of web novels makes the structure janky to begin with.

All said, things looked really choppy for many portions, specifically for Arc Three. It was absolutely necessary to edit and refine them to make them much more readable in a light novel format. Which is why it has taken so very long to actually do. 

Apologies for that... I seriously hoped that I would be long since done before now, but I hadn't expected my work to need so much editing. Lamentable, but ultimately a better story in the end.

So far, I've gotten the text down to 480 pages, with about 98k words. It's possible I could get this slightly slimmer, but I think I'm pretty much done with major edits. I'm already way past due, and need to start working on formatting.

Which btw, formatting and images will cause that page number to increase. So definitely expect something closer to 490 - 500 pages when all is said and done. 

As long as its under 500 all told, then things should still be good. Fingers crossed.

I'll be doing another couple of passes for congruence, flow, pacing, and so on. And then I'll be concentrating on illustrations as much as I can. I'll be shooting for an end of September release, but depending on how this move goes could go to October.

I know I should have been doing illustrations at the same time as the edits, but as I've noted in a previous blog post I have been severely demotivated.

Writing Scions of Gaea has been a deeply contemplative and depressing experience, simply because that's the general mood of the book itself. It goes to show that those feelings will bleed into my daily life

Still, both books are going well. Apologies it's taking so long. But don't worry - Ravens of Eternity Volume 2 is still on the way, and Scions of Gaea is still going out as scheduled. Despite all the despondence, lol.

Stay tuned for more soon!