In a few days, my fantasy-comedy WiP, Not Your Mother’s Shire, will reach 6/25 total chapters, 110k/500k target words. I would be grateful for “best practice” insights about any or all of the following–what did you do?:
-
Editing. Like most drafts, the work I have on dashingdon needs tweaking for clarity and effect. Since I’ve discovered my voice and style for this medium as I’ve gone, some things are inconsistent from beginning to end: types and kinds of choices, amount of text before decisions, etc. My best pages are my latest, but newcomers will need to read through the earlier ones to get to them. So, I’m concerned I’ll lose testers I would have kept if they’d seen my better content first. TL;DR: Should I take a break from forward progress to sharpen up or press on to the finish and then double back?
-
Design decisions. I’ve discovered as I went that I want to do some things differently. I want to recalibrate stats, roll checks, and rep gains. I want to change wound tracking. I want to code my ROs as gender swappable–having done one, I’ve seen how much time this adds. If I continue and then double back, I might get an even better sense of what I ultimately want. If I don’t, I can keep on with my momentum, but commit myself further to things I want to change. TL;DR: Should I take time to change things now or change them later, when I’m finished?
These are smaller and more nuanced questions.
-
Optional chapters. I have 5 optional chapters planned, e.g. Ch 9.5. They focus on relationships and don’t effect the plot. Basically, they’re a vacation day with the RO cast in different iconic locations. Has anyone tried things this way before? How’d that go? Is there a better way? I figure this switches up the pace and allows people who don’t care to skip at the cost of word count. There’s other organic and integrated relationship building. These would be dedicated and limited, e.g. you can hang w up to 3 of the 6 and join them in whatever they’re doing. Anyone coded entire chapters as optional? How’d that go?
-
Killing off ROs. Anyone done this? How’d it go? How was it received? Anyone made the PC kill them?
-
Endings. Minus the 5 optional chapters, I’ve planned 20 plot-essential ones. However, the player will only experience one of the three ending chapters per play-through, depending on their choices. Anyone else do it this way? Differently? I have four plot endings: serve the dragons, rule the dragons, slay the dragons, or become the dragons. Is four enough? Too many? What am I not thinking of?
-
Achievements. Did you do these as you went or double back for them? I was thinking of making a wiki post in my thread to ask readers what they think the achievements should be. Anyone tried this? Something else?
As an utter wimp, I’m grateful for any pain you can save me. Cheers!