Dedicated to MissBookNut for being the true MVP of letting me spoil things to untangle shiz because I got more than a little stuck in my own twisties ._.
So.
Wow.
Okay, that's book #4 (+1 prequel) finished for me now. I'll tell you what, when I first started writing Sentinel, like, four years ago, it never occurred to me that I'd actually have written a book per year. I'm just gonna let that sink in for a moment. *-*
Pls note: I mean 4th book in general, not 4th book in a series or anything. All my books are #1 in their own series, except Pinfeathers which is Indigo's prequel <3
YOU LOT KNOW THE DRILL BY NOW. IF YOU DON'T WANNA READ MY RAMBLINGS, SKIP TO THE END WHERE THE TL;DR WILL BE.
EVEN IF YOU DON'T, PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT ^-^ I LOVE COMMENTS. I READ ALL OF THEM AND DAMNED WELL TRY TO REPLY TO THEM ALL. THEY MEAN A LOT TO ME, SO IF YOU COULD SPARE A MINUTE FIGHTING WITH THE 'POST' BUTTON, I'LL LOVE YOU FOR IT =>
YAY COMMENTS!
STILL WITH ME? Let's go to ramble town ;D
*+*+*+*
So, obviously, Hard Light was my 2015 NaNo novel. It kind of came at the perfect, yet most inconvenient time ever. Perfect, because November started literally 2 days after I finished Pinfeathers, and inconvenient, because dammit I had Indigo edits to do. (there'll be a section on that, don't you worry, turtle fanatics.)
Leah was definitely different to my other MC's over the books. I think I also tortured her more than I did any of the others in their first books. She wasn't in any way capable in terms of combat, which made things a little difficult plot-wise. She had to actually out-think and figure things out to progress the plot, which... I'm gonna be honest, I got myself tied up in a super big knot at the end plot-wise. I was so very stuck. Like, I legit went through half an A4 notebook of notes trying to figure it out and came up with an even bigger knot.
Props to Missbooknut for sorting that one out for me and letting me spoil the end to untangle myself.
This is why you plot your endings first. *headdesk*
It was definitely interesting though. There was a lot more theory crafting going on in the comments than usual, which was really cool to see xD Some of you were close, some of you not so much, but in the end, I hope I didn't disappoint ^^ I felt really bad sometimes, since it seemed like you guys had a whole lot more thought/detail worked out than I did at some point XD
It's also the first time I've actually had to space out updates. Usually, I finish a chapter at some ungodly hour in the morning and upload it pretty much straight away. In the case of HL, because I was also trying to edit Indigo and I didn't want to pull a Mythic on you guys (i'm still so very sorry about that by the way), I decided to be like 'OKAY, WE'RE UPDATING ON MONDAYS!' as opposed to 'Ehhh, I haven't uploaded in a few days but I'm almost done with this section of Indigo so maybe a few more days.. *three weeks later* OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE' happening all over again.
I'd also like to point out that, had I known the full plot without it getting super twisty on me compared to what I started with, Kieran could have very well ended up the bad guy, manipulating Leah into finding the Mark and taking down Emrys and Asriel. If I ever rewrite HL, this could very well end up being the case. I just.. it fits so well, aside from a few details that wouldn't be hard to change.
But at the same time, I now get to torture him because he's a Slayer. ^_~
... but could you imagine a manipulative Kieran, turned Slayer and then under the control of Leah's Command Mark? ...because I can, and it's kiiiiinda scarily super tempting to do. *MAKES NOTES FOR FUTURE USES*
*+*+*+*
SEQUEL!
Yes, HL has a series planned behind it.
No, it won't be written any time soon.
I have a rule that I don't write sequels until the first book is published, because I don't want to be rewriting two books instead of one. I'm sorry =<
That said, there will more than likely be some Leah/Kieran not-legit scenes in that random little book up on my profile if you feel like checking those out when they happen ^_^
*+*+*+*
Speaking of Indigo~
I've done A LOT more worldbuilding since the first draft on Wattpad, and I really feel like the plot is still the same at its core, just with all the waffley-paddy-unneccessary bits cut out. It's gone from nearly 190k words to 118k at the moment, and it's strictly from Athira and Shift's POV's now, which, let me tell you I was terrified about doing, but it works really nicely. Hopefully in the published version, 1) the Colour system will be much better explained and 2) it won't get called a Teen Titans rip off. If 2 happens, I think I'm just going to curl up in the corner and cry. *resists urge to delete indigo off wattpad every time a teen titans comment happens because it's my own god damned fault for not even flippin realising rawrawrawr hng.*
BUT YEA! The turtle is well on its way, and hoooopefully my next new writing project is going to be Indigo's sequel. No, it doesn't have a name, and no, I have zero idea if I'm going to post it on Wattpad. That entirely depends on how much you guys show the publisher you care about it.
Aaand yup. Super excited about that. Also super terrified it's going to crash and burn. At least I'll know what burning turtle smells like. Probably around the end of March. Hopefully. ^_^
*+*+*+*
But... yea. 2016 is going to be an interesting year to say the least, and I hope you guys stick around to join me for it ^_^
Thank you for joining me for another probably-crappily written adventure, and I hope that there'll be many more to come =D
*Throws cookie baskets to all who read this far, because you are truly a magical and wondrous creature*
<3 Kelsey
TL;DR:
- Missbooknut is MVP at letting me rant to untangle plot lines
- PLOT ENDINGS FIRST KELSEY YOU SAUSAGE.
- Spacing out updates is hard, dammit.
- Turtles are progressing through editing. Will update what burning turtle smells like when that gets published. ^_^
*+*+*+*
Hard Light: Completed at 95,834 words on 12/1/16 at 4:17am Australia time.
YOU ARE READING
Hard Light (NaNoWriMo15)
FantasyLeah is a Radiant, a dying race that is able to crystallise Light. Plagued for centuries by a parasite able to turn them into mindless monsters known as Lightless, the Radiant's homeland has been long since lost. Leah's seen what the parasite has d...
