Upcoming Story Notes/Thoughts/Stuff (I'd like your thoughts!)
Added 2021-04-06 09:44:04 +0000 UTCI'll try to keep the rambling here to a minimum, but I make no promises!
I've got another long story planned. (Well, I've actually got two, but this post is specifically about one of them.) It's somewhat in the vein of 'Lock and Key' or 'The Product Tester', with a plot about a woman who isn't ABDL but finds herself in an extended stint in diapers and babying for various plot reasons, with romance and moderate levels of kink.
However, I want to shake things up about my writing process on this one.
One of the limitations of the chapter-at-a-time approach is that there's no opportunity to edit the story. If I want to make a change, I have to course correct a chapter at a time and backfill anything that I missed. If I realize that I should have done something differently a couple chapters earlier, I'm SOL.
I also have always tried to make each chapter a self contained bit of storytelling. Even with something like The Product Tester, which was a long narrative, each chapter could be seen as, like, an episode of a serialized TV show, with its own miniature plot arc.
Neither of these elements are bad, but they are somewhat limiting. I have no problems working within those restrictions, but sometimes I want to do something else.
This is one of those times!
And new problems call for new solutions.
What I normally do when writing a longer story is write an outline, then begin writing chapter-by-chapter. If I encounter something that needs to be changed earlier in the story, I make a note of it, and then keep writing as though I had already made that change. Then, once the whole story is 'written', I'll go all the way back to the start and make all the changes that I noted. Once that's done, it's an editing pass for polish and grammar.
However, writing a long story poses its own problem: It takes a long time. At minimum, a few months, but given my writing schedule, I'm guessing that this story will take about a year to tell. Maybe less, but maybe more.
So, what I'd like to do is just that. Post as I write, but with the clarification that what's being posted is not 'final'. I'll include my editing and commentary notes so that you can follow along with any continuity changes, and once the story is done, I'll finish it properly and post it as a complete novel. If anyone wants to wait until it's fully done and just read the 'proper' version, they can, but it allows me to post it as I'm writing it without missing a bunch of updates on my posting schedule. (Plus, it lets me course correct based on audience feedback, like a live version of beta readers!)
What are your thoughts on this? I'd very much like to hear them!