Chapter Reworking

So I sent Chris "Gelco" the first four chapters of my book to look over. This is the first time he has seen the book even though he is my closest friend and confidant on the Etherea team. I recieved some feedback this morning from him stating that the chapters made him want to read more, which is obviously a good thing, but some details were missing especially about Fort Estan that were needed to draw him in. I took that and ran with it, it inspired me a little in the right direction to fill in and create descriptions of the town as Vespasian and his guider Sebastian ran through the town. I was able to describe the houses, shops, town center, various districts, etc. It gave me another 2-3 pages as well.

I didn't want to stop there though, the chapters still bugged me because how some of them were only a few pages long so I reworked the 14 chapters I have now down to 11 chapters. They flow a little better in my opinion that way and also make for more full reads within each chapter. I've only reworked chapter 1 and 2 though, I'll tackle a few more later and hopefully early next week continue working on chapter 15.

Real work calls and I have to write up some trips reports about my recent trip to Africa (I led up a team of a few people in an effort to pick villages out in Cameroon for future humanitarian work under the NGO Engineers Without Borders). It was a great three week trip but there's a lot to write about and document and my boss who wants it is a full bird colonel...so I better get to it. Somehow I don't think he'd understand "yes sir but I really needed to finish the next chapter in my book."

Until later,
Rob

First!

So here I sit at 10:08pm and I can't seem to give the content to the first few chapters of my book that I wish it had. It gets everything across that I want it too but it lacks the page quantity...quality over quantity I know but I really would like my book to reach 300 pages and for the full story of Vespasian to be told. I want it to be told in such a way that it captures the audience and lets them find Etherea to be a world they want to spend their time in.

I guess I should start from the beginning though, this isn't some cheap movie after all...better not rush to the end.

For the past 8 years or so I have thought about my own world...the world of Etherea. I've always had a very active imagination but after playing a multitude of games ranging from Diablo I and II to Star Wars Galaxies I thought "well hell, my world is better." So I started giving my world dimensions, depth, countless hours of thought, creating it from every angle possible. The creatures, the villians, the heroes, the landscape, and everything else. For the last 6 years or so I have thought about making my world into a game for the purpose of telling the story...an MMORPG titled Etherea: Dark Genesis. The game would be a free download and only cost a monthly fee for however much it cost the servers to stay up (pretty good thinking for a kid at least). Well I built a team of twenty people with like minds all wanting to build this wonderous game. We created a lot of models, textures, art, programs, etc. but the game engine we were banking on working never got up to speed like it was suppose too. It was a game engine designed for MMO making teams that didn't have a lot of funding, I paid for it, the development on the engine never went as far forward as they promised, but hey they are still working on it...years later.

Needless to say, without a game engine there wasn't much of a game. But my friends and I still kept drawing art and imagining the world I had built. They were all such great inspiration to building the world and coming up with parts of it that I would have never thought of without them. We talked in thousands of posts on our own forums and true friendships formed. A few of the remaining team members and I are working on a web based game, eventually an RTS, and who knows maybe the MMO in the future if we get a proper engine. But my passion has always been for Etherea, the world itself and those that live in it, and of course inviting others to find adventures in my world.

So that is the 2 cent version that brings us up to now. I have written 120 pages (5.25" by 8" format in 11 font) in word and have reached chapter 15. I may combine some of the chapters because some of them are very short reducing it down to maybe 10 or 11 chapters so far. But for now I find myself looking over the first 7 chapters mainly and trying to expand on them. There's so much story to tell about Vespasian, his past, and the world of Etherea...but getting them all to fit together in an entertaining way proves to be the issue.

And thus procrastination has struck me, I'm not quite tired yet, my senior year academically doesn't start till next Thursday, and here I am...writting on a blog...to you...whoever is reading it. Let me know your thoughts and any feedback.

Good night bloggers