:(
Saturday, January 24, 2009 - 7:15 PM
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Folks, it's a day that I think many of you knew was coming, but it's one that I resisted as hard as I could, as long as I could. After long bouts of banging my head against the wall, I've reached the conclusion that I am unable to finish The Murloc is Lonely as a long-form novel. My love for the story, for its characters, for its world and for its community has been all that's kept me going over the years (years!), and all but one of those loves has finally and fully flamed out. Writing has become a chore, and one that I'm increasingly unable to confront. I've written several pages beyond what I've released, and there are some exciting scenes coming up, but even with an impending battle to draft I can't force myself to sit and write long enough to accomplish anything.
The last love, of course, is for you. I owe you all so much, and this isn't quite goodbye yet: I have the plot mapped out to the end of the third book, in varying levels of details, and it would be poor thanks for the years of joy and support that you have given me to simply disappear. As I said, I've got the plot - and I don't want to leave you without it. I'm open to suggestions, but for now my plan is to switch styles, from the close first-person narrative to a more distant, third-person style, providing a summary of events with more details as they inspire me.
The story grows quickly - it doesn't take a very discerning reader to discern that there are great forces at work in Az. You don't know the half of it yet. I had always worried whether my plot would be too ambitious, too large for its own good - and I'd always planned on earning the plot with prose and characterization. I'll lose that now, and the plot will have to stand on its own. I hope it does.
After a week or so open comment period (I will check in to duly accept invectives) on my style shift plan, I will begin delivering summaries shortly. I will dedicate one night a week to working on them, and with less lofty goals I like my chances of being relatively productive.
Serious Murloc fans... I'm sorry. I know that there is an implicit trust placed in the leaders of such communities, and I'm under no illusion that I'm not failing that trust. I wish I could go back to the early days, when writing this story meant everything to me, but I've tried for a year and a half to do so and failed. I'm sorry. Thank you all for being part of this.
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