davidmusk
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The Rest of 2025
🕑 Added 2025-08-11 12:00:00 +0000 UTCHi everyone,
Thanks for finishing Web of Chaos with me! Overall, I was happy with how this book turned out. It might even be tied with Book 1 for my favorite in the series. It definitely had some of my all-time favorite training and power-up scenes.
As is tradition, I’ll be taking a break from posting new chapters to edit old books and plan new ones. My biggest goal right now is to get Book 3 (Web of Knowledge) rewritten and published on Amazon. But I also wanted to plan Book 6 first so that I can properly foreshadow certain things.
First, I had a question for everyone. About a month ago, I posted a poll on Patreon and Royal Road asking about my biggest weakness as a writer. “Pacing” was the overwhelming answer, and also the last thing I’d expected. In hindsight, it’s easy for authors to overlook this aspect of writing because we always focus on the scenes we care about.
I also jumped to conclusions here and assumed that weaker pacing meant my plots were progressing too slowly for some people, but a few comments made me rethink that. Maybe certain elements move too quickly, while others move too slowly.
So I’d be grateful if anyone could share their thoughts on this topic. Even if you just mention which scenes and/or plot lines you found boring, or any that moved too quickly. I’ll be rewriting Books 3-5 for Amazon, so there will be plenty of opportunities to improve them. Ideally, I’d also apply what I learn to the rest of the series.
Anyway, here’s my schedule for the rest of the year:
Mid-August: Worldbuilding for North Shoken
Believe it or not, I’ve written nine books and I’ve always done the worldbuilding along the way, inventing things as I needed them. But I was watching one of Brandon Sanderson’s writing lectures this year, and he mentioned devoting specific time to worldbuilding before he wrote the actual story. That got me curious. Would my worldbuilding be richer if I followed that approach? Would it make the actual writing go faster later on? North Shoken is a brand new setting, so this seemed like a good chance to find out.
Late August—September: Outline Book 6
Like I mentioned above, I want to outline this book before I rewrite WoK to keep everything consistent plot-wise.
October - November: Rewrite Book 3: Web of Knowledge for Amazon
Pretty straightforward. WoK is almost three years old now. (I posted the first chapter in September 2022) so I need to go through the whole manuscript and get things up to current standards.
December: ?
I’m honestly not sure yet. I might be itching to write Book 6 at this point. On the other hand, I could jump straight into editing Book 4 so I can publish both books next year.
If I do edit Book 4, then I should still be able to start Book 6 no later than February 2026
Regardless, it will be a few months without actual content updates, so everyone should feel free to take a break if you want to!
Thanks for all your support!
David
Comments
Shelbee Nicoles
sorry for the delayed reply, my first one seems to have disappeared! I think the biggest example of pacing issues is the main couple. a lot of their relationship seems to exist offscreen, and while we see big moments that move it forwards, thats a lot different than seeing them work together. an author who I think did it well is Brandon Sanderson; in Mistborn Vin and Elend, and in Stormlight Archive with Shallan and Adolin, the relationships grow a lot more on screen. there isn't *that* much missing from the relationship, but a B plot of things that happen as they go on dates, for example, would help with pacing. you could also use these B plot chapters to show off solidifying the characters skills. sorry for rambling a bit I had a much cleaner comment typed up that seems to have gone missing. Of course, they are your books so feel free to ignore my advice, but I think having a few "show off their current progress and help flesh out relationships and characters" chapters every so often would make the pacing feel a lot better.
David
To answer that question, I definitely see myself as a book writer over a web novelist. RR and Patreon are a way to see the live progress, but the published book lasts forever. :)
Roy Robinson
My feeling on pacing is that you have to take a look at what kind of writer you're trying to be, or more specifically what kind of reader you're writing for. What I mean by this is, a person who reads or listens to a completed book is going to feel differently about pacing from the person who follows you here or on RR and consumes your work one chapter at a time with several days in between. You've brought up including slice of life chapters as something you're unsure of how to handle. I love them in a book, but they can feel like they drag the pace in a chapter format because sometimes as a reader it might feel like a week without advancing the story, where as in a book it's an injection of additional flavor that I can appreciate and digest in minutes before moving on with the story.
