Sorrow and Song: Part 3 | Starlight Under Clouds

Decisions for Future Updates (Please Read and Respond)

Hey, awesome readers. Work with me on this one.

I started uploading Sorrow and Song to Wattpad over two years ago. It's been a busy and at times pretty rough two years, and there have been significant gaps between updates over the course of 2019 and 2020. A lot of it was inability to devote time to writing, which turned into a disconnection from the story, which turned into writer's block. But the bottom line is, the progress of the story slowed. Way down. And because progress slowed, it became difficult for readers to maintain a linear sense of the story's events. It doesn't help that Starlight Under Clouds, this third volume, is possibly the most complex in terms of plot, with no fewer than three major plot threads going on simultaneously.

I kept telling myself mistakenly that I would break through the block, and so kept ploughing through with these clumsy reminders and explanations despite the dragging wait. Now, it might be jumping the gun to say this, but I've written 4k words for Starlight Under Clouds in the last three weeks and I do believe I've found momentum. Despite some rough edges, this story is finally off the ground again — and not only that, but I've fully fallen in love with my words and want so badly to share them with you all.

It's unfortunate that just as things get cranking, I must admit that the wait has been too long.

I can't continue updating Sorrow and Song on Wattpad for the present. If I continue postings as things stand, you'll be reading without an adequate understanding of the story's arcs and subtext, and not only does that do you a disservice that I don't want you to experience, it'll alter the feedback I get from you as a reader, which could negatively affect future chapters.

What's more, I spent some time this summer revising portions of Winds Rise (book 1), and several rough spots are still marked for improvement. Path of the Tempest (book 2) has already been modified since its posting to Wattpad. While a lot of those changes were character/prose-related and inconsequential to the plot, Starlight Under Clouds sadly has an important character decision that I recently realized is entirely wrong.

Quite simply, I'm about to change things that will make further reading even more of a confused mess for you than it already is.

I don't want to say goodbye to Wattpad posting. But what I do in the next few months is really up to you guys.

OPTION A: I unpublish Starlight Under Clouds (this current volume of SAS) from Wattpad. Starting early 2021, I begin re-posting it**. This option allows you to get reacquainted with the story at a pretty steady pace, while also letting me accumulate a backlog without worrying about pushing out updates on a deadline (found out that that really screws over my writing...)

OPTION A1: I unpublish the entirety of Sorrow and Song and repost it chapter by chapter. Perhaps not a necessary action, but it is an option in case you should feel you really need a refresher.

** I would, of course, have to continue my publisher-requested policy of having only a couple chapters up on the site. However, I considered posting 2 chapters together instead of 1 to speed up the progress and give you more content at a time.

OPTION B: If not enough people are invested in the idea of option A, I'll abandon Wattpad altogether and rely solely on a Google Doc. I don't know if anyone has been using the Google Doc I created some months ago** to give themselves a refresher, but I've been adding new chapters to it as I write them, and I will continue doing so for the duration of Sorrow and Song.

** If at any time you want the link to this doc, let me know! It's a handy way of reading the whole story without the publishing constraints I'm bound to on Wattpad.

Please tell me which option (A or B) you would rather follow. I like the sense of consistency and community option A offers, but you may just want to have the Google Doc and not worry about updates so much (you're still welcome to the doc, of course, even with option A).

Love you guys so much. Thanks for sticking with this story, even through the fits, starts, and doldrums. You don't need to feel tied to it — if you're no longer interested, or don't have the time to keep up with this anymore, believe me, I understand. I'm grateful for every moment of your time you've given to it, no matter what comes after.

I'm a stubborn fighter, and I've finally grasped the beautiful threads of this tale after months of stumbling doggedly in the dark. I'm giddy with joy and excitement, burning for you to see the full vista. This is gonna happen.