A Chronicle of Lies Book 2. Where I'm at.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR BOOK 1 AHEAD! If you haven't caught up, catch up first and then read this. I will leave this post accessible to all Patreon tiers since it's easier for me.

We've reached the end of book 1 and I'm sure some of you have questions. When is book 2 coming out? What can we expect? What's it about?

 I'll be honest upfront. I don't have an ETA. I care about this world a lot and I am working on it, but writing isn't my day job. I wish it was, but sadly, very few authors can make a living off it. So unfortunately, life interferes a lot. I have 27000 words written down at the time of this post. I am currently editing those chapters, removing some of the rough edges before I continue. But I'm afraid I can't give an estimate. The best I can do is talk about my progress on the discord channel that I've set aside for book 2 updates.

What can you expect from book 2? So first, I'm going to talk about the feedback I've recieved and talk about how I'm going to incorporate it in the second book. Then, further down, I'll talk a little bit about the plot of book 2 while avoiding major spoilers.

So, here's some improvements to my storytelling I hope to incorporate.

-There will be more action in book 2. Book 1 was about dipping Vincent's toes into this world. The pace was a slow burn and perhaps, too meandering at parts. I will pick up the pace in book 2.

-Each chapter will have something meaningful happen in it. One of the biggest mistakes I made in the first book was that the original chapters were too damn big. (I'm talking 10k+ words.) So I ended up breaking them up. The consequence of this was that many chapters just sort of "stopped".  I hope to avoid that in book 2. Each chapter will serve to move the story along in a meaningful way.

-Vincent will have more agency. In book 1, he was just a troubled guy thrust into an incomprehensible situation. He stumbled through the story, not knowing what to do. In book 2, he will be a more active participant in the world. (This isn't a spoiler btw. It was pretty heavily hinted at in chapter 58. )

-I will try to avoid switching out the cast of characters. Another gripe people had with book 1 was that I kept changing out Vincent's companions without giving anybody a chance to know them. I will be keeping that in mind.

Now, I will talk about a few plot-adjacent developments in book 2. (I am not going to go into details or reveal anything major. But if you want to avoid this section for fear of spoilers, feel free to skip it. )

-Vincent will grow in his abilities. He will become more a more formidable presence. I avoided this trope in book 1 since it wasn't the focus. But now that he's accepted that he's trapped in this world, he's going to learn what he can do. In some ways, this may add a progression aspect to A Chronicle of Lies.

-At the same time, he will improve as a character. I don't want to give too much away, but my favorite plotlines almost always involve morally bankrupt characters becoming honorable people. He's suffering. His confrontation with the Puppeteer will have its scars. He will be haunted by it and by the decisions he made in book 1. There will be introspection.

-Zerok culture will be explored more in-depth. This is one of the things I'm pretty excited about.

-A new threat will appear within the first few chapters, and it will set a chain of events into motion.

I don't know how long it will take me to get a decent enough backlog. The story I have in mind is ambitious. I don't say that to pat myself on the back, but rather because I'm intimidated by the scope of it. I could easily fumble the landing with certain plot developments. If I pull them off right, they could be amazing. If I don't, you guys could be like "wtf?!"

I want to make sure that the actions characters take are inline with their characterization, that they make sense, and that they don't contradict established lore.

So I need to take the time to do some worldbuilding. I need to build the foundations for the events to come. I did a little bit of this in book 1, (leaving hints as to what's to come. There's a few obscure lines of dialogue dropped here or there, some brief descriptions of the environment, etc... ) Falius has a history. It's muddled by the calamities, but it's filled with lore. So I need to make sure I do a fair amount of foreshadowing.

I also want to make sure I polish book 2 enough so that by the time I start releasing chapters, they're fairly close to the quality of book 1. I don't want to release trash. So yeah, that's what I have to say. I am trying to figure out if there's a way if I could get you guys involved with early feedback. Like I said, I have 27000 words written, but it's rough. It's far better than book 1's first draft, so I'm happy about that, but right now I am polishing what I have. I'm also trying to figure out if certain plot developments make sense. That's where I'm at.

Feel free to ask any questions!

Btw, the discord link is https://discord.com/invite/nknXqcCsWc