Before I get to my check-in, I wanted to pass along the following bit of news.

On March 12th I’ll be publishing episode nineteen of my dark serial. At that point, it will be time for me to take a break from it. Let me just repeat that last bit. It will be time for me to take a break, not end it. I’ve said before that I will continue to tell stories about Maynedon until I can no longer find the doors to that world, or until such time as no one is interested in opening them with me. – New Season, New Directions

It’s been seven months since I wrote that, and I’m sure you’ve had your doubts as to whether or not I would ever return to my little story. Well, I am. Episode 20 will be published on October 29th. I hope you’ll enjoy it and the road ahead.

Why the delay?

I’ve always intended to take a extended break between “seasons” or books in the series. After Episode 19, I planned on waiting until the end of the summer before doing any serious work on the serial, and I’d hoped to have Episode 20 out the door right around Halloween. Still, those dates were soft–and if I didn’t get around to the next book until 2013 or beyond, it wouldn’t bother me.

When I write the story of Maynedon, I write it how and when I feel like it. The serial is my personal playground, where I don’t worry if my fly’s undone or I’m taking too long on the swings. I think every writer needs a project like that. A story or series they write for the pure joy of it, without any external constraints, and without worrying if the language isn’t exactly perfect.

As it turned out, my original plan was pretty much spot on.

Things will be a little different this time.

I learned some things while writing the first book, which makes sense given it’s about 100,000 words long. I’ve also written quite a lot since then, further expanding on the lessons Maynedon taught me.

One thing I learned is that 5,000 words per episode is too damn long for a web serial. It’s a decent enough length for a chapter in a novel, but it’s a hideous length for a weekly blog post. For this next leg of the journey I’ll be keeping episodes to between 1,500 and 2,000 words. That’s about as short as I can get each episode and still move the story forward.

There are other changes in play for Book Two, but I’ll just leave those as surprises for now.

So what’s happening in Book Two?

I’m not telling, at least not yet. I hope you’ll enjoy finding out.

What are you even talking about?

Maynedon is an ongoing story. It’s a dark serial with elements of horror and fantasy. I publish episodes weekly and they are free for you to read. I published the first book, Cedar Mills, over the fall and winter of 2011-2012. You should probably read that first.

ROW80 Check-In

Oddly enough, I’m not altering any of my goals in light of the above. When I wrote them, I did so knowing I’d be jumping back into my serial. That’s part of the reason for my “free hour,” and also part of the reason for my goal of spending one hour a day on this site.

Between those two hours–and the eight hours of each day I’ve left up in the air–getting an episode up every week will be a piece of cake compared to everything else.

Which brings me to how the first two days of this round have gone.

• Spend three hours each day working on freelance writing. Done.
• Spend an hour a day working on this site/social networking. Done.
• Spend one hour a day doing whatever the hell I want. Done.
• Spend two hours a day reading. I totally failed this one both days.
• Spend an hour a day working on my physical health. Failed this one too.

My work is getting done, but the only “personal time” I’m taking is the hour where I force myself to do so. Any functional minutes I have keep getting used on writing and research. Once again, I’m apparently just a girl who can’t say no.

Or something.

Whatever the reason, I can’t sit still for two hours and read so long as my brain still has juice left in it. I want to keep going, keep moving forward on whatever the next thing is on my plate. And once the juice is dried up, reading’s out of the question.

Are you just as unable to put the breaks on this week, or is it just me? I’m wondering if it has something to do with this being the start of a new round.