B4: the Update
(Why can’t I resist a clever title?)
I just wanted to post a quick update. After the holidays—when I didn’t get much time to write—and then a week-plus of just not being in the mood to write (the first week of the year), I’ve been in a writing mood lately.
I’m not up to my 10,000-words a week of the early days of B1, but I still managed to maintain a pretty good pace last week. The weekend has been different altogether, full of Honey-Do lists and personal projects, but next week should be good.
I’m through with the second round of reality checking on Ch1, and I’m pretty happy with the results. I’m about halfway through the first draft of Ch2, although I haven’t sent anything to my team yet. I have most of Ch3-4 plotted in my head, along with major scenes in Ch5-6.
So, things are moving along. Once I get 3-4 chapters written and in various stages of editing, I’ll post Ch1. Like with B3, I want a decent reserve of chapters, so I can live my life and enjoy writing.
Many of you probably weren’t around for the two-a-week days of B1, when I posted 26 chapters in something like 3 months. But I didn’t have a life back then. I wrote all the time. The story practically poured onto the page. Even the B2 days were a mad dash of a chapter a week, with most chapters twice the size of an average B1 chapter.
I like my pace with B4. It’s a sustainable pace. It’s not an all-consuming mad dash like B1, or a crushing grind like B2. Even the early days of B3 were a grind (until I snapped, around Ch7, and changed my posting schedule).
Anyway, that’s the story with B4 so far. I’ll post updates as I can.
Thanks for reading.
- Nick
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20 Responses to “B4: the Update”
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I remember the early days of B1. I think you’d feel better about yourself if you gave up your life for 6-8 months and got this story out of your head and on paper. The twice a week postings were do able. You were younger then, but you can still do it! And the voices would be gone.
Your readers could learn to live with 2 chapters a week…it would be a strain on our part, but we’d adapt.
Nick,
I’ve got to think that Jerry’s comment, whether tongue-in-cheek or not, is the kind of thing you could live without.
I definitely support your slower pace for writing. When I first got in on the action toward the end of your B2 posting, I started at the beginning of B1 and my free time consisted of little else. Just reading your immensely compelling and engaging stories just sucked me in. As the one creating it and polishing it up to your wonderful standard, I can certainly understand a slower pace for your posting.
I hesitate to speak for others, but I’m sure there are many of us that will gladly read chapters at whatever pace they are posted.
Thank you so much for creating the world you write in and for making it so enjoyable for us.
Nick,
Take your time, it is worth the wait for the polished end product.
To fill in the time why not set up a “book” to let us try to guess the name the wife and who died.
You could award extra points for creative reasoning by the submitters and as a discussion thread it would certainly have “legs”.
You do not have to “confirm or deny” if we are getting close, the only and final answer would be in the finished book.
Thanks again for your efforts, I have certainly enjoyed them so far and can only look forward to the ride as you unfold the next chapter.
Jerry,
That crushing you felt (on both sides of your face) was the final test on my new TSB (TERB Support Tool). I trust that you will not be heard from again.
It feels that the wait for chapter 1 is much worse than the wait for the Prolouge. The little taste we have gotten has whetted the appetite and driven some of us insane like Jerry. While we might want more sooner I understand you have to have another life too. so ignore Jerry like you said before those guys joking aren’t funny. Just a quick crititism I just reread B3 and I thought there was too much Felicia. Hoping you’re enjoying life JS
nick, make b4 well, not fast.
you know, the good things that come for he who waits… 10x, A.
Nick,
Thanks for the update. Once again we appreciate all you do.
Bob
Nick:
You owe us nothing — we (at least those of us with more than 1 brain cell) are incredibly grateful for the gift of your creativity and labor.
I know it must be hard to ignore cretins, but be assured that your efforts are very much appreciated. B
For my part, a regular posting is better than waiting for an unknown date. That means a posting on the first friday of the month is better than “sometime”, even if that means we must wait two full years for 24 chapters.
If this for some reason can not be upheld, then post every other month. It’s always better to post faster later on, instead of you stopping the entire story because you don’t have time for your real life.
I would also like to ask for you to include in the “what’s new” page that a new blog entry is here.
Hope I don’t fall into the category “demanding”, I certainly don’t mean to demand anything. I merely suggest, and would appreciate any response to my suggestions.
Humbly,
Howard
Not really a post about your update, but about the ongoing topic of people being demanding of you for something you do out of your love of writing and sharing it with us.
There are definitely some people who just don’t “get it” and have been rude, discourteous and demanding. I have also felt that some of the people who have been called out for being rude and demanding were most likely misunderstood by you or others. For most of us, it is actually very difficult to convey the proper tone on this kind of forum, especially when trying to exercise wit or sarcasm.
I am telling you this not so much to tell you that you are wrong, but for the simple fact that I hope you don’t get frustrated with people who most likely simply did a poor job of saying whatever it was they were trying to say and lose your desire to keep doing what you do.
I can guarantee just about everyone who takes the time to post a comment loves your story-telling. Please have patience with those who innocently put their feet in their mouths and keep blessing us with your stories.
As for those who DO think they are entitled to have you produce entertainment for them on THEIR schedule . . . well, F em.
Sounds good Nick, looking forward to it.
Rob.
Not having been around for when you were actually posting B1 and B2, I have to say I don’t mind this pace at all. You get to keep your sanity, and we get to sit on the edges of our seats wondering what will happen next.
Kind of makes me wonder if this is what it was like in the mid-1800s waiting for the next chapter of the latest Charles Dickens or Wilkie Collins novel to be published.
I started reading Summer Camp in the middle of B1, and I must say, I got a little spoiled (being able to simply go on-line, and grab the next chapter). However, having said that, I do acknowledge that you have a life (don’t we all?), and although a few people may deny your right to that life, I for one, do not.
I love your stories, and if you were to rush through them, as some “suggest”, they wouldn’t be anywhere near as good.
An aside to some of the folks who have criticized people for their “lack of intelligence” (simply for a few misspelled, or misused, words. Please, lighten up! Not everyone is a professional writer/typist. And even those who ARE make mistakes (that’s why editors have jobs!).
Nick, we love you, man! Keep up the great work!
Nick,
I haven’t been here in some time (knowing it would be awhile before you started bacak), so I’m just happy to know you have started writing again. I’ve been a fan of the books since midway through B1, and do remember the fury you pulped them out. However, knowing how my writing can end up getting blocked when I feel pressure, I am all for you taking your time. Not that you need my, or anyone’s, permission to set your pace. Thanks for creating fantastic characters and a great universe to escape to.
P.S. I’m originally from Chattanooga, so can you give me Kendall’s current address, if she has survived? LOL
I wait with baited breath for B4. You have captured my imagination and rekindled my memories of all the insecurities of growing up with Paul’s stories. I WISH I had his problems of too many women, but I enjoy how he has matured and solved his problems with always thoughts of how to help his friends.
Write at your own pace and enjoy your life. We’ll wait for you to post when you’re ready. Remember: Enjoy life each day, you won’t get out alive.
Nick,
Please keep in mind that those who seem to feel entitled and those of use who are waiting quietly bit with great anticipation are both of the shared mindset that you are producing something worth the wait. Please forgive the impatient and discourteous and ignore their whining. We appreciate your efforts. The pace you set in B1 set a high mark for yourself but those of us with nothing but praise to offer in return thank you for your efforts and will wait for the end. We’d rather see you keep to the standards of excellence you’ve set than a schedule
Nick,
Don’t you just feel like J.K. Rowling?! (Except for the fact that she gets paid handsomely for her writing).
All you have to is treat us like demanding children. The smart ones will learn and accept; the others will continue to demand.
As you post, we read. ‘Nuf said.
Nick,
I’m sure it’ll be more than worth the wait. Ignore the people who seem to presume upon you, as Dave above says, ignore the stupid ones, and just enjoy your masterpiece. The tension is just going to make that first chapter oh-so-much sweeter, so don’t feel obliged to give it us until you’re good and ready :).
That said.. this site is one of my most regular checks, besides the fact I’m on the E-Mail list. I reread the whole series in anticipation.. so good luck with the next chapters, and the whole book, and I’ll be here till the end, regardless if it takes a year, a decade, or 3 months as B1 :).
And once again, Thanks so much for sharing SC with us :).
Thanks for all the work you’ve put into this series over the years. By the way, any chance of some more Erin & Paul action?
@ p-head
You’ll have to read to find out.
<insert maniacal laughter>
God, I love saying that.
- Nick