August Updates + Retcon Poll
Added 2024-08-01 12:02:00 +0000 UTCHi hello, all! Some quick updates and a poll today.
August updates! Having quit my job, I was able to work up a pretty serious backlog of chapters, which let me take off pretty much the entirety of July just to edit book 3 in preparation for publishing it. Wanted to let everyone know that those edits have been going really well, even if (much to my horror) they're still not done yet. Thankfully, I'm in the home stretch -- after doing some larger rewrite sections, I've been editing the rest of the book chronologically, and as of today, I'll have fully edited the first 50 chapters. If all goes well, I'll probably publish in late August or right at the start of September.
A good chunk of the edits were focused on the final dungeon delve and Warram capture chapters, and I'm happy to say I think they're in a lot better shape than they started. Will probably do a recap of the smaller things I changed next month once I'm fully finished.
One thing I'm still feeling lukewarm about, though, is some of the death scenes. I've added more foreshadowing and tightened up some of those chapters, also moving the "Elsewhere War" chapter so that it doesn't break up the intensity, and I think it feels less like a continuous sucker-punch now. Even so, it still feels like a bit much to me.
Which brings us to the poll. Even though the pre-published version is inherently going to be a bit less polished than what gets published, in general, I'm pretty against any form of "retcon," as I don't like the idea of getting invested in a story and then having a major event from a bunch of chapters ago suddenly change on you. On the flip side, I'm wondering if the book would be better served by one fewer death before I go to publish it.
To that end, I wanted to gather some feedback from everyone on how you would feel if I went back and had Tess save Nella before she died. Can't guarantee I'll do whatever the poll says, especially as I'll also be posting this on Royal Road and the votes there might differ, but I do want to know if this is something people would generally feel positive about (yay fewer deaths) or largely feel negative about (boo dramatic retcons).
Please let me know in the poll below, or if you have any thoughts on the matter, would love to hear them in the comments!
Poll Prompt: How would you feel if I went back and edited book 3 so that Nella survived the final dungeon boss?
Comments
I just read those chapters last month and I feel like her death is needed. The reason I say this is because you’re literally writing book 4 as our protagonist recovering from a destroyed mind from the catastrophically failed skill that’s been incorporated into a legendary mental skill. The death of Stella who is such a bright, blazing figure is an excellent contrast to the bleak devastation to follow. I feel like you *could* write her surviving but I’m not sure how to do that and make the story better for it. If we look at the fight, Stella would absolutely have to loose all sense of restraint with the lose of her brother, it’s in her defined personality, thus she at minimum needs to be permanently crippled to a similar or worse degrees as Tala. Looking to the future, what will having Stella alive add to the story? Will she be an emotional burden on Tala to keep her from moving on? Perhaps you could have Stella become Tala’s ultimate reminder to do better, but you don’t need Stella alive for that and her character isn’t one to give any helpful advice. TLDR; keep Stella dead unless her being alive will be of some benefit to your future narrative, otherwise the darkness in book 3 is at an acceptable level to set the stage for book 4.
Tenrog
2024-08-02 02:29:15 +0000 UTCTo tell the truth I really don't like drawn out bad scenes so happy that dungeon gets compressed. Though I totally skimmed it.
melchi
2024-08-01 23:29:53 +0000 UTCYou make good points here...🤔
Michael Neal
2024-08-01 21:01:24 +0000 UTCI want her to live because she is awesome and I was exited for her journey, I want her to die because it really hammered home the awfulness and hopelessness of that situation. Maybe our Protagonist doesn't know she survived? Given the choice I want her to live though, she is a great character and the loss of her brother could lead to some interesting places for her journey.
elijah pickett
2024-08-01 14:28:27 +0000 UTCDeath!!!!
Zushie
2024-08-01 13:43:45 +0000 UTC"Falling into lava" is not a one-off, but definitely not common occurrence (or even readily available)
Apoca
2024-08-01 13:21:03 +0000 UTCAs someone who really liked the original version, I could go either way. On the one hand, I think less death may lower the dramatic impact of that scene. But on the other hand, I think Nella could be a great source of drama in future books if she lives. I don't know whether she would blame Tess, blame herself, or blame the dungeon, but regardless I expect she would be a complete mess of angry PTSD whenever Tess makes it back to Sylum, which could lead to an intense confrontation. From my perspective, I'm less concerned with whether Nella dies (since it is dramatic either way), and more concerned with Tess' culpability. One of the things I liked most about that ending was that Tess' relentlessly passive attitude towards her life actually had serious consequences. Oachin (and maybe Nella) died in part because of her blasé attitude towards the danger the dungeon represented. She ignored all of the warnings about increased cost when she used the forge. She also ignored Emin's warning about how high Prestige could lead to personalized dungeon events with increased rewards (and increased risk). Obviously it isn't solely her fault; Emin also didn't put forth his best effort. But I do think she had a portion of the blame, and my hope is that the rewrites make that more clear (e.g. by making the forge's warnings a bit more obvious), instead of downplaying it.
Mire
2024-08-01 13:05:03 +0000 UTCWhile I am still against a retcon of her "death", something like this would feel alright to me. She still gets her dying star moment, and then Something pulls her back from the brink after everyone believes she's well dead. It would probably have to be a one-off kind of coincidence, like completing a hidden class quest, spending the rewards, *and* getting declared the protagonist of some related minor deity, but I could get behind it
Hazel
2024-08-01 12:55:37 +0000 UTCI don’t think it fits her class super well/it’s a bit too strong
Lion Heart
2024-08-01 12:36:07 +0000 UTCSuper down to have Nella come back, but I hope she doesn’t blame Tess for the bullshirt that isn’t Tess’ fault. We just got through a ladyfriend of Tess being unreasonable.
Tartlet
2024-08-01 12:35:29 +0000 UTCI love this idea
Tartlet
2024-08-01 12:33:13 +0000 UTCI would like if Nella survived but nor as in "Tess saves her". If anybody have a phoenix-like skill that allows to make self-healing out of heat it's Nella. She was submerged in Lava. That would make it healing for her. It would be interesting if she left the dungeon after everybody thinks she is dead.
Apoca
2024-08-01 12:14:11 +0000 UTC
