Some updates on the long-term series I've been working on

 I write this on the first day of December, backdating it by a single day so it doesn't look like I was underachieving in November.

Regular readers and observers may have noticed in the past year that all the homeworks and excitement I had for novel and other long-term series writing has gone wayside, to be replaced by slash-fiction pieces. Most of them half-hearted as well.

It's true, I've not added any new pieces to the various storylines I planned on writing for this year. However planning work has been going on for some of the lines I've enjoyed working on. The appointment & disappointment series has had considerable character work done, plot points are coming up nicely. Need to tie out individual storylines, combine them into a central arc, and then work towards the scene work. Basically bash out single (or multiple) descriptive lines for each of the scene that's going to be in the book, Thinking somewhere around 70-100. I know the overall arc, I know the characters, once I know the exact scenes, the progress will appear much faster.

This year I've added at least two new potential long-form pieces that would be interesting to do. The first one which is named 'Escape from Kathmandu' is a political drama but I fear it may be beyond my plotting abilities. I don't understand politics, it could get out of hand. But then the other thought is, maybe I don't need to know anything about the inner workings of other characters who we never see as well, what if I'm just as lost confused and dazed as my characters, and it's a journey of how they deal with loss and separation? The hook is going to be how the rebellion is going to be organized, but the central tenet is basically a mystery: sure something bad happened in the country, but why is literally nobody doing anything about it, why are they letting it become a cesspit, a new North Korea times a thousand? An easy way out for me would be to not answer any of those questions, go along with the characters for a ride, and discuss their theories and ideas. If I ever complete the piece, and it's read by pretty much anybody other than me and close friends who I'll force to read, I can think of some way out. It'll be a good problem to have. When your readers want a nice reveal.

The other piece I see going somewhere is the "Jestha 19' series I began writing the last week. The idea is that the government has decided at some point in the near future that the original investigation's results are not valid. They investigate the involvement of the later royal family and come up with pretty much nothing, no evidence. To save their face they make it about national price, the solution to one of the greatest royal mysteries of the world. They ask for comments and suggestions from citizens all over the country, possibly beyond, and a central board is tasked with interviewing them, and evaluating if those theories are worth investigating and putting resources into.

So it's a great opportunity for me to show some character work. Sure it's about the conspiracy theories everybody has, but what about the people who come up with those ridiculous ideas. How can I reveal the most while stating the least. And it's also about the interviewers themselves. How would one reveal a character's personality when their only task is to listen and ask questions about a theory. So ideally somebody could read the various chapters and think, ohhh it's this interviewer in this chapter because they talk in a so-and-so manner and ask such-and-such questions, and I see how it relates to something that happens in the chapter after because their personality shows the effects. Etcetera. Sounds like a bit of a challenge though. Still, 30 wild stories to discuss and write is a crazy idea I just can't let go of.

More on this later. It's a work in progress.