Isn’t That Kind of Stupid?

Yeah, I think if I were pursuing traditional publishing avenues, then yes, I think my strategy is kind of stupid. The thing is I am not really interested in pursuing traditional publishing for these stories. If someone wanted to publish the material, I’d happily pursue it, but not at the risk of compromising my desire to just share these two stories with as wide an audience as possible.

I am at a good place right now regarding finances where the motivation to make money through my writing doesn’t really factor in as much as it did earlier this year. I have done a lot of freelancing over the years and I am happy I can dial back on that. Now I work as a college English/Composition instructor (at full time, which I am just about used to) and can find time to just make things for people to enjoy.

Things like stories about werewolves and zombies.

I just want to make my stories available for anyone wants to read them, and right now that means posting these chapters for free, weekly, based on my current writing schedule. I’ve been doing this for a while, but I am feeling even better about that choice because of changing circumstances.

Aren’t You Worried About Quality?

Oh most definitely I am constantly worried about the quality of my serialized chapters. I am not turning a profit and can’t exactly invest in editors, so it comes down to me alone or the rare beta reader. Also, I know there is a perception of free things, especially fiction, being lesser quality. I knew this coming in.

So this a kind of two-part question. Regarding the first part, I am fortunate to have a Master’s degree in Literature and Composition. As an instructor I have a critical eye. Each chapter usually gets three rounds of drafts so maintain the pace of my schedule. A first draft for the narrative, a second draft for polish, and a third draft for the proofing. It’s about as much as I can afford to do and still maintain the pacing I want regarding the serialization.

Okay, Explain That Typo I Saw?

Does that mean errors slip in? Yes, it can happen. But I’ve seen proofed and published books with errors. Besides, if someone makes me aware of them, I fix them. No big deal. I’m a one-man team. Given the work I am doing out of my own pocket, some typos here and there are fair. I don’t think they are damning, especially when I can change fix them on another read through.

As for the other thing, free online fiction being perceived as lesser quality? Not much I can do about that. I can only control what I create – I work to my schedule, do three drafts, and keep running. The truth is, I don’t consider these chapters finalized and I am learning as I write.

I also think the latter half of the question may also involve unfinished or partial stories – things people read but stop updating. I don’t want to do that – I promise any readers as much.

Except if I die. Then it is what it is.

Why These Serialized Stories?

I chose to write Fang & Bone as a nod to pulp stories I’ve read. The whole story, if you’ve read it, is a lot of sword and sorcery elements. I mean, the titular Fang is a seven-foot tall werewolf swordsman. It’s all indulgence. I make no excuses for that.

I wrote an earlier draft of the narrative as a novella, and while it was fun and the readers enjoyed it, I knew I could make it even better. In the future I may write about some differences between the original draft and the current version sometime, actually. For what it is worth, my goals for the current version of Fang & Bone were twofold: one, double the length, and two, introduce more characters. I am succeeding at that so far. As for how much of the novella I am reusing, the novella is essentially just an outline. So much has changed already between this version and the first version.

Beyond that, I think the story itself is very accessible and has a lot to offer. But we’ll see how making the chapters serialized here on the website will go in the long run. I am optimistic the right audience will find the story.

The Dead Life

The Dead Life was a serialized novel I had already begun writing for a horror website called Haunted MTL. I retained the rights to the material and needed something to post on my website, so here we are. I had written about 24 chapters before I left Haunted MTL, so admittedly I am just editing and reposting existing material now. However, it has been nice to polish each chapter and find spots to improve the narrative.

If I had to put it in percentages, 85% of the material I post here is based on those older versions at Haunted MTL. But I do think the 15% coming in from this weekly chapter editing process has added a lot of nuance and character to the overall story. As this week’s update goes out, we’ll be about half way through the existing chapters and it will be time for me to continue the story. I am very excited about that.

How Is It Going So far?

Good, I guess. it’s an underwhelming answer, but it’s also about what I expected. Am I lighting the internet on fire with these stories? Not at all. But I am having fun posting them. They are available to everyone who wants to take the plunge, no paywall involved. I am also sticking to my schedule despite some hiccups regarding the recent job transition.

I find I am happy with the chapters I have released week after week, and as I am my own biggest critic, I think that is a good thing. Putting this stuff out there is risky. This isn’t polished and I know I could benefit from more readers and a copy editor. But I don’t have the budget for that, for now, so I work with what I have. And you know what? It works for now.

Once these two novels are done, I may go back and edit them and build on the foundations of this serialized collection. I recognize that these chapters are very much first drafts.

But I don’t think that’s going to hurt me very much. Especially as I am not really rushing to find a publisher here. I wouldn’t mind more readers, or financial support through Ko-fi subscriptions, but I am not hurting here, either.

So Why Do You Still Do It This Way?

For the love of the game, really.

I think as long as I am having fun and happy with what I am writing, that is all that really matters to me.

The post Sick Day Musings, or WTF I am Doing Writing Two Serialized Novels appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Bloggery

Welcome to the blog portion of the mailbag post, I may start doing some blogging more regularly as a way to keep up when I can’t post any of my stories or columns. on that note, though, you may be asking what’s up? Why have updates fallen behind?

Well, let’s get into some news.

New Class

A surprising development that hit me in mid-March was the sudden passing of a colleague of mine. I am not sure about the details, but suffice to say, her passing created a bit of a crisis and there was a need for someone to take over one of her classes. I was asked to do so. Normally, I am limited to two classes a semester, but I was given this third class with about half of the semester remaining. I had a backlog of material to grade in addition to planning out the rest of the semester for a new batch of students.

With that said, I handled it well and I have fallen into the rhythm of handling three classes, but that came at the cost of production time on my other work. I don’t mind that so much because I am helping out some students in a moment of uncertainty, though.

Regardless, that’s been a bit of a schedule crunch for me. I at least have some Cosmic Dash pages coming out. But everything else has fallen by the wayside, largely. Hence lacking updates in any of my fiction or writing any new articles for the website. My apologies.

Production Uncertainty

Another recent discovery has me worried about the production schedule through the summer. For the past few years I have been able to reliably pick up summer classes to teach. Unfortunately, I have no classes scheduled for this summer which means I’ll be job hunting and freelancing to make up the difference.

There is always a chance the college may open up more sections if the demand is there for summer classes, but I am not optimistic. I am hopeful, but not optimistic. Considering my partner has yet to find a job in a year of searching, summer is looking a little scary for us. I’ll be busting my hump just to keep a roof over our heads, and that is going to inevitably leave less time for comics and stories.

So, while I have you here in the mailbag, I’ll just casually remind everyone that I take commissions. I’ve had a good number come through recently, but anything I can pull in from this work and save for the months ahead is essential. I may even run a commission special later this month.

I also take subscriptions on Ko-Fi, even at $1 a month. It helps cover material I am already producing.

Mailbag Questions

We have three questions in the mailbag to kick us off this week. Let’s dive in.

First off, we have Lenora:

What are your favorite narrative devices/tropes, and what are some stories (any medium), that utilize these best in your opinion and why?

I have always been partial to in medias res., though I prefer it when it is done a little more simply, though, like a title card that takes us back to the beginning of a story instead of narrated forms of dealing with it. I am positive we’ve all heard that joke of “*record scratch* You may be wondering how I got here…” It can be fun, but the best modern example of the narrated version I can recall from recently is the Deadpool movies, particularly because they lean on the cliche.

I love Rashomon plots and I am surprised I have not dove into them myself as a writer. I don’t think I’ve quite found a story to approach for that just yet. Seeing the same events from multiple perspectives and the truth being some element of the three or more perspectives is very exciting to me.

I am sure there are others I could write about. I may do that as a separate post one day.

Next, we have Allybear:

What do you do to get yourself in the mood to create? I struggle with motivation so anytime I make something it’s a spur-of-the-moment decision.

My feeling is that I am always thinking about things I want to do and conceptualizing stuff, but it is a lack of time to put it into action. I get a lot of ideas for stories and scenes. There’s no struggle there.

However, given my work schedule, day-to-day life, and just feeling older and more tired year after year, there are times when I lack motivation to work when a window arrives. Usually what gets me going is tremendous levels of guilt. I do not recommend that. Pressure motivates me but I am sure it is probably eating me alive.

Something I have been doing off and on is scheduling work time. Find about an hour each day to work toward something. Having that hour consistently has been gearing me up to at least work on something creative, even for a bit. I found that in the moment that hour becomes two or three hours organically.

Lastly, we have Nick Wright:

How long have you been doing comics, and how did you get into doing them?

I started drawing comics as a kid but only got serious about them in high school. I was drawing comics for my friends and decided to try to put them online. It was kind of in the zeitgeist at the time as a bunch of those types of comics were beginning to emerge on the back of Penny Arcade.

So I got a cracked version of Photoshop, scanned a bunch of my pencil art, and then colored it all. It was kind of a crash course I threw myself into back when I had more motivation and time.

This would have been around 2004. I began posting comics on a GeoCities website in addition to what was then Drunk Duck. Some of those old comics are still available online. I eventually started Cosmic Dash around 2007, of which I have little remaining art, but did a reboot in 2010.

That’s basically it.

Also, be sure to read Nick’s webcomic.

Have Questions?

Thank you for checking out this first installment of the mailbag. As an old-school internet guy, I have a lot of fond memories of mailbags on websites and it’s nice to live out that thing again. I would like to make this a monthly thing, so please feel free to ask me questions you have, even if they’re just for fun.

I’ll answer just about anything, but I might be best suited to questions related to the kind of subjects and material I cover regularly. I have no issue diving into other areas, I have a take on everything. Hell, I’ll even answer questions about academia and writing if they come up.

If you want to ask questions, you can comment on this post, hit up my contact page, or check my socials for posts on Bluesky and Mastodon where I call for questions.

Otherwise, thank you for checking out the mailbag. We’ll do this again in May, hopefully.

The post Mailbag – 4/5/25 appeared first on hpkomics.com.