Fic Talk > Updates
Drop it like it's hot! Or... Updates from Dee. :o)
nicksgal:
Happy one-ish year anniversary of the world ending? I’ve gotten back up to 15 chapters ahead in my writing, good for me! It’s taking a little longer now since I have less “interesting bits” to pull from these days, mostly because all of the “interesting bits” I’m furiously writing down are in the next part of the story and not this one! What am I going to do when I get there? Haha This next portion, I may be writing a little differently, depending on what’s more interesting, so I hope I stay ahead even when I write unconventional ly. I know I said I was going to discuss clothing, but I have nothing prepared for that, what with the vaccine, some other life things, and being fairly useless with snow days. So I think I want to discuss rereadability. What makes PBox something worth revisiting?
This is partly inspired by this week’s chapter, probably the one I reread the most from PNecklace as I work. The first scene did need some editing after I initially wrote it, but overall the second scene is virtually unchanged from when I first committed it to paper. I don’t know what the reason is. Maybe because it’s something I’ve spent a long time thinking about. One of the longest things I’ve ever spent time thinking about in all of PBox et al., actually. And this chapter only reveals part of it. Y’all are in for a real treat eventually, when we get there! It’s really hard keeping big secrets, but I’ve been trying my best.
And even having spent so much time thinking about it, and researching it, once the time to start unraveling it came, I went back to research. Of all the things I’ve spent time researching in PBox, I think this one has been the most time consuming, but it’s also most fundamental to two of the biggest questions about the entire story. Why demons/what are demons? How does this magic system work? I’ve talked a lot about world building in the various writing threads because it’s most of what I spend most of my non-writing time on. And I’ve mentioned, of course, that I’ve researched everything under the sun from martial arts to parts of weapons to climate to architecture of castles to how birds/bats/etcetera fly (if you missed the videos of ducklings hopping out of trees, you should probably go watch them because they are hilarious). And all of these things get lovingly put into PBox in ways that I hope are interesting, but not overbearing. That you can enjoy the research without it being overwhelming. I hope y’all enjoy the little pieces of research that pop up in appropriate places, and I hope that it makes something with so many fantastic elements seem believable. Though, as I’ve said many times, I realize the amount of times the Boys “basketball jump” into flight is not at all realistic; call it laziness for a quick transition. Whenever you see them getting a running start, that’s much more realistic for their size. That or climbing a tree and jumping out of it, but I don’t think I’ve ever had them do that even when it would make sense? Something to revisit in OF PBox perhaps.
Besides moments with great research and effort shining through, I guess the parts I like rereading the most are the ones where the characters shine. Whether that’s in relation to each other or themselves over the course of the story. I’m not even sure it’s Nick chapters that I’m partial to, there’s just a lot of them compared to the other Boys. Either because he’s a spotlight hog or I just let him hog the spotlight. It’s something I’m trying to work on, albeit poorly. I’ve said it many times as well, the number one reason to read this story is the characters. The plot is also pretty interesting, but the characters are the ultimate drivers of what goes on and what happens. I’ve ultimately let them take the wheel as long as they’re developing and growing. Really, Nick’s the best (or most demanding) bus driver of this story. Anyway, hope y’all enjoy this one! It’s one of my favorites.
nicksgal:
And now for your updates!
If you would still like to read PBox, I will include both location links below. While all fifty chapters of PBox are complete, it is still undergoing the tiniest cursory edit where I change the paragraph alignment of the "~*~" and fix a couple errant commas, but otherwise it's all there. Feedback is always appreciated. :)
Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos
Pandora's Box on AO3
Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):
Chapter Fourteen ("Soul") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos (I said I really liked this one way back when, but it's probably one of my favorites overall.)
Chapter Seven ("Melt") of Pandora's Necklace on AO3 (You've been able to read this chapter here at AC since January.)
Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers. Last week we got some Nick & Kevin! Which you should have expected if you've been reading all of my PBox background information posts. I wonder who the Nick & _____ might be this week... Hmm!
nicksgal:
I finally got going on some PNecklace again yesterday! It's not very far yet, but I think it's what was missing before we all continued on. So good news! I've also committed to doing Camp NaNo through NaNoWriMo with the goal of finishing PNecklace next month. Wish me luck! I'll update y'all as I go along. Right now I've got twenty chapters left to write, so about 60,000 words. These epics, I tell ya! If I'd actually started this in November, I wonder if I would have written that much then too (since I got through 21ish chapters and about 51,000 words).
Meanwhile, I've been hard at work on that early new chapter of OF PBox that I'd mentioned. And it was just as fun as I was hoping. It took a while, but I enjoyed getting back into early Nick. He's a fun insecure, flinching, mood-swinging mess. But, he still has all of his determination, spunk, and Leeroy Jenkins-tendencies. Plus his sarcasm and naivety. I think it's what the beginning has been missing, so I'm happy with it. Let's see what my betas... (gammas? deltas? PBox has gone through a lot of revisions over the years) think of the addition. I'm interested to see what they think once I get to Howie, but I've already added/changed about 7,000 new words before handing it over to them. And made revisions since, so it's a process. They've only seen the first three chapters though (or chapter two through four of the version you can read). I was rereading a thread here recently about publishing and I think one of the things in it was "do you put in the work if you don't know if you'll get published?" And I suppose, you never know until it's all finished and you try. Wouldn't that be nice if you could just pitch an idea and have people decide based on that? I'll have to get better at writing summaries, haha. I told some of my friends I was writing a novel and when they asked what it was about, I just said "demons." Clearly a great summary of the whole of PBox.
Did everyone enjoy last week's chapter? I told y'all that I would be revealing big things for several weeks! I wonder what's next. Hmmm... This is has been this week's addition of "I have nothing to talk about so now I will ramble, lol." And now for your updates!
If you would still like to read PBox, I will include both location links below. While all fifty chapters of PBox are complete, it is still undergoing the tiniest cursory edit where I change the paragraph alignment of the "~*~" and fix a couple errant commas, but otherwise it's all there. Feedback is always appreciated. :)
Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos
Pandora's Box on AO3
Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):
Chapter Fifteen ("Confidence") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos
Chapter Eight ("Bewitched") of Pandora's Necklace on AO3 (You've been able to read this chapter here at AC since February.)
Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers. Last week we got some Nick & Howie! So I'm guessing you've assumed that this week much be Nick & AJ; sorry that you're always last, AJ.
nicksgal:
No chats this week, it was very busy!
If you would still like to read PBox, I will include both location links below. While all fifty chapters of PBox are complete, it is still undergoing the tiniest cursory edit where I change the paragraph alignment of the "~*~" and fix a couple errant commas, but otherwise it's all there. Feedback is always appreciated. :)
Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos
Pandora's Box on AO3
Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):
Chapter Sixteen ("Earthquake") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos
Chapter Nine ("Misgivings") of Pandora's Necklace on AO3 (You've been able to read this chapter here at AC since February.)
Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers!
nicksgal:
My apologies for another week without chats! I have something interesting in the works for next week, so please look forward to it. This chapter ended up taking slightly longer to edit than I had planned as Brian begged for some humor to be added and he does not disappoint! (I hope.)
If you would still like to read PBox, I will include both location links below. While all fifty chapters of PBox are complete, it is still undergoing the tiniest cursory edit where I change the paragraph alignment of the "~*~" and fix a couple errant commas, but otherwise it's all there. Feedback is always appreciated. :)
Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos
Pandora's Box on AO3
Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):
Chapter Seventeen ("Den of Demons") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos (You'll notice it's one I listed as a favorite and I think it only became more so after the little edit I gave it this week.)
Chapter Ten ("Fear") of Pandora's Necklace on AO3 (You've been able to read this chapter here at AC since February, but if you had wanted to comment on it back then and didn't, now's a great time to do so. I will now stop being shameless in my updates thread.)
Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers! Thank you to everyone who helped get PBox to ~40,000 reads and PNecklace to ~1,000! I appreciate you all!
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