Oh boy . . .

Hooooookay. So. Yeah.

Due to some of the feedback we’ve received, we’ve realized that there are a lot of things that, well, weren’t exactly working the way we had hoped. We actually had quite a few comments saying that they really didn’t like Locke as a character, so yeah, that didn’t work. Big blow. As a result, we’ve spent a large part of the day going all the way back to chapter one and trying to make some adjustments. Apparently, he came off a little too greedy and self-serving for some people’s tastes, and we get that, but it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind. Not to that degree, anyway. He has a definite goal, and he is working towards it, but we’ve done a lot of work trying to soften things up a bit. I haven’t made any changes t on the website since we aren’t quite satisfied yet, but I’ll go ahead and give you a heads up that some fairly significant changes are coming that may or may not change your perspective of Locke.

Question #1: Is he likable as a main character? Is he at all relatable? Or were we just waaaaaaay off base with this one?

We miss the mark sometimes. It happens. A lot of times we start with an idea, kick it back and forth about twenty times, and end up with something even better or something that’s completely different. We have these ideas, and sometimes they just don’t come across the way we intend or in a way that we like. But, hey, that’s what the revision process is for. Have I ever mentioned how much Charles hates revising? My last root canal was easier. At least I got to watch TV during that.

The other large part of where this weekend went was trying to rework some of the sections that are just now being posted onto the website. Even by our own admission, they just didn’t work. There was a fairly glaring omission that was edited in ninja-style (totally not saying what) and just … yeah. I apologize if the post from today has any glaring errors. I haven’t had time to read back over it as one-piece yet, so I can’t say for certain that I’m happy with the flow. We’re going to be seeing the introduction of a fairly major character, and with everything else in mind, we had to make sure we pulled it off the right way.

Question #2: This isn’t really a question, but I had a number one, so I have to have a number two. Anyone have any additional thoughts or comments on the characters or development so far? Plot going too fast, too slow? You hate one character, or you’d like to see more of another?

I can’t stress how much we thrive and rely on feedback. It’s like getting a pump at the gym: it’s addictive and lets us know whether we’re doing something right or wrong.

 

Tl;dr
Anyway, this is the link you’re probably looking for.

 

August 2nd’s post is being tacked on here.

A little slight of hand. . .

. . . . and we’re back over here =)  Your author’s day was complete shit, so you get this today.

I know that these sections can be a little disorienting since they’re out of place with what’s going on in the current story progression, so let me preface them a bit.  They were originally intended to help flesh out Eliza’s character a bit with some background information, development, and motivation that would inevitably be really hard to include with the story as it is currently written.  When we started work on them, we were never really sure that they would be included in anything other than the published work, possibly as non-sequential bonus content like we did in The Bathrobe Knight Volume 1, since they’re clearly a deviation from the storyline.

All that having been said, let’s just consider these as bonus content.  I hope they help develop the character a little more — even though we’ve only seen a small bit of her in the actual story so far — and provide some insight into why she acts the way she does (err. . . or will (not a spoiler I swear.))