Not only chapter seven, but chapters one through seven. 8, 9, and 10 are ready to complete, but I’m done for the day. Chapters 11 and 12 are already written.
I really need to start pushing forward. I know what happens in chapters 13 and 14, but I need to get to around 25 to make a book. I know where the book ends, but I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get from here to there.
One of the most difficult things about writing LitRPG is keeping the spreadsheets and the text synchronized. That’s how I determine “done”: The spreadsheets and text are in-sync and there are no to-dos left in the text (indicated by ZZZ, so search is easy. Thanks, Scott (a co-worker who uses that technique in code)).
I do feel sorry for my (potential) readers. Luke has a meta-skill that allows him to get skills. It’s only chapter seven and he has bunches (14). This is going to get annoying to read quite quickly, if it hasn’t already. Tom, our other intrepid hero, has a more nominal five.
Some LitRPG authors have dedicated fractional chapters for character sheets. I may adopt this. Probably not for book one.
The pattern that is emerging is “dump character sheet, have pervy sex, then end the chapter”. That has the bonus of “hiding” the “too gay” parts of the story. If you page past the character sheets, which I often do when reading LitRPG, you will also page past the sex scenes, which are only implicit, not explicit, but still, “delicate straight people” are part of my (potential) audience. Making it overlookable seems like a good plan.
I’m starting to think that’s how I may end many of the chapters: A skill leveling up due to them doing the nasty. So far, we having Biting, Howling, and Dominance.
Since Luke gets skills at the drop of a hat (and the Dropping skill is just waiting for me to use that phrase), this could get amusing.
Above, I mention book one. I will get book one completely finished, but not publish. I want books two and three almost ready to go (basically everything but final proof) before I publish book one. Unless I get much faster, I can’t do a book every two months. I need a backlog to keep momentum going. If I get readers hooked, then I can slow down a bit.
Book One: System happens. Book Two: Start figuring it out. Book Three: Start integrating with everyone else (great mage story-arc in this one). Book Four: No idea; thinking “mercenary”, but very US-attitude focused. I need the first series – eight or so – books “themed” before the first is published.
This is turning out to be far more work – and far more fun – than I had expected.
I’m excited for AI covers. It’s too soon, but I really want to start trying. I suppose the failed attempts would make good “Featured Image”s for these posts.
Marked Up 