A few things (Ais)

This entry isn't really of import except to say I'm pleased with where we're going. We've had such clashing schedules for awhile, combined with my own issues which included an increasing dislike of writing the story, that for awhile it seemed like things were headed on a downward spiral. I never planned to quit writing the story but I needed a break so bad that it was making me hate my characters, dread having to write, and overall was adding to the miserable aspect of the entire situation.

The reason I'm pleased is because this hiatus has already allowed me the chance to start to take the break I needed, which is making me head in the direction of wanting to write again. I still have my moments where I don't want to but now they're few and far between as opposed to the constant, immediate reaction of before.

One of the biggest issues was Boyd. I think months ago, I subconsciously was affected by some things, which ended up affecting the way he was written. Not the plot per se, because we had that all figured out already. But for quite a few months, it felt like nothing was right and all attempts to fix what was wrong failed because I didn't know what was wrong, and no one was happy. It was incredibly discouraging and was a major factor in my starting to hate the story.

The problem is, I only ever started writing because I wanted to write what I want to read. So when I started imagining myself as the reader and not liking certain things, and when readers didn't like certain things, and when we were having problems with writing because of scheduling conflicts, etc, it all added up.

I finally got the chance to step back about two months ago, to figure out what it was that made me not want to write Boyd anymore. We were having problems with Boyd and Sin meshing as well. I realized that certain things had gotten skewed and once we talked about it at length, I decided I was going to start writing Boyd the way I wanted to write him again. That shift was probably most prevalent around Pandora and the subsequent interludes.

It's been working better now but FYI, just remember that everything we post online we consider to be a draft or work in progress. When we go back and edit, some things will change to make Boyd more like the way I wanted him to be all along. Because there were a lot of reader reactions that took us (or me at least) by surprise and it took me months to figure out why.

In the end, the negative or unhappy reactions were mostly reflective of my own reaction that I hadn't realized I was feeling yet: something wasn't right. Some of the reader comments helped me figure out what my own issue was with it.

In somewhat related news, feedback makes me smile. I was just reading some of the really nice feedback people gave, including some really nice stuff said recently in Evenfall. I love it when people comment. I love it when people hang around the site and talk on shoutbox or the forum. It makes me happy.

So keep it up, peeps!