Soon™

Uncategorized

Sorry about the radio silence, everyone. As always, the best way to keep abreast of developments is to join my discord server; announcements are posted there and you can easily ask questions of the community, as well as myself when I’m around, which is at least daily.

So I have good news and bad news!

The bad news is that The Gods are Bastards is going to remain on hiatus for some time. I am recovering well from burnout and have overcome most of the stress-induced aversion I’d developed to the story, but recovery itself brought up a whole new set of problems: looking at it with a clearer head, there are multiple major plot threads I have no idea how to resolve, a number of things I honestly can’t remember what my original plan was, and in general the realization that I am just not ready to produce the last two books and have them be up to the quality I want. I should’ve anticipated something like this; depression is known to cause memory loss, and this is an enormous story with a ton of stuff to keep track of. This story deserves and needs a proper conclusion, and I need to take more time to do (at least one) complete re-read, do some serious plotting, and work on it. At the moment I am actually planning to do the last two books as books rather than as serial chapters. You know, write them all out ahead, and then go back and edit the whole before publication. And I should be able to do this without completely leaving everyone in the lurch thanks to the good news.

The good news is that my next story will launch the first week of February. The hard deadline I’ve set myself is the 6th, my birthday, but I’m aiming for before that. I have been writing steadily for the last few weeks, both to build my rhythm back up after taking a break and to build up a buffer. I was really burned out; I didn’t even start to realize how badly until I’d taken some time to rest. Honestly I feel I could take the rest of the year off and be better for it, but I’ve reached a point where even pure regard for my own mental health won’t allow that. I need to be working and creating, and I’m bumping up against the threshold where the lack of doing is would cause me too much stress to be worth the rest. So! Stories will resume next week. We’ll be off on a new adventure, with me having a comfortable buffer at launch so I’ll be able to take breaks as I need them and work on the next part of TGAB without taking another complete hiatus.

The final announcement and link to the new story will of course be posted here, and as I said all relevant info will be available on discord.

I’m more grateful to all of you than I can express, and expressing things is literally my life’s work. That’s how much I appreciate you. Thanks deeply to the tremendous patience of those who’ve continued to support me on Patreon and even sent me donations during this period when there was no work coming. Y’all have kept me fed and housed and enabled me to recover enough to get back to work and I promise I will do my very best to make it worth your while with my future offerings. But even if you’ve never sent me a red cent, I want you to know that you are still very important to me and I’m grateful to you for being a reader. Nobody goes into fantasy writing to strike it rich! I just wanted to give people a bit of happiness and knowing I’ve done so is the thing that truly keeps me going when I’m at my lowest points. I hope my writing has made your life a little bit better in some small way; I know it’s a mess out there and we’re all holding on as best we can.

Soon!

27 thoughts on “Soon™”

  2. Great to hear! I look forward to the new serial and the books when you’re able to get them done. Take care of yourself first and foremost though!

    Like

  4. Yay! More stories from D.D Webb! Who is feeling better!

    Can we get a hint about what the “new adventure” is about? Or do you want to surprise us?

    Like

  5. Happy to hear you’re feeling better 🙂

    Also happy to hear that I’ll get to read more of your writing soon, but that first point is more important 😉

    Like

  7. > looking at it with a clearer head, there are multiple major plot threads I have no idea how to resolve, a number of things I honestly can’t remember what my original plan was, and in general the realization that I am just not ready to produce the last two books and have them be up to the quality I want. I should’ve anticipated something like this; depression is known to cause memory loss, and this is an enormous story with a ton of stuff to keep track of

    Make sure to write as much stuff down that you intend to do as you can, since it’s extremely likely for something like this problem to happen again if you put the story on an extended hiatus while you spend a bunch of time writing something else.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Thanks for the update! Glad you are doing better and continuing to take care of yourself. I’ve been reading for years and am both looking forward to the new story and the end of this one, however long to takes to get right.

    It’s been a really hard year and personal well-being comes first, we all understand that and will help how we can.

    Like

  13. The idea of a whole book of TGAB at once sounds amazing, no matter when it comes out. Definitely better for *my* mental health than other serials that have me constantly refreshing hoping for a fix 🙂

    I’m glad you’re feeling better and enjoying writing again. Don’t forget to keep monitoring yourself as you ramp back up!

    Like

  14. Glad to hear you’re recovering; don’t feel you have to rush your return or set yourself unrealistic deadlines.

    Recovering from burnout is just the same as recovering from over-exerting yourself physically; you need to take it slowly and steadily and build back to where you were in sensible steps. You are the best judge of what those steps should be, so please don’t put yourself under any pressure on our behalf.

    Take care and I look forward to new stories!

    Like

  16. Very happy that you are feeling better! That is by far the most important thing, even if you never write another word for the internet! Here’s hoping things continue to improve!

    On the TGAB front – do let your fans know how the books are coming. Absolutely zero pressure on when (or even IF) they get released; but I know I wouldn’t be the only one that’d love, say, a 2-month warning so a re-read could be done in time.

    That said, again, the important thing is your well-being. I really wish I could donate – your writing helped me through some really hard times, that aren’t over yet. Once I can get the gov’t to approve my disability payments, so I actually have a non-zero income again – expect at least a new Patreon supporter.

    Like

  17. Looking forward to your new series, and I’d rather wait however long it takes to have you nail down the last two books to a highly polished state than get something halfassed to just push it out the door like GRRM did for the most recent book.

    Like

  18. Glad to know you’re doing better, and I’m honestly proud to be part of a community of readers that can share this level of honesty and empathy with the author we support.

    Like

  21. I’m actually pretty excited to see what you’re coming out with. I liked the premise of Netherstar, and while I was initially hoping for more work on that I think the pattern indicates I’ll enjoy whatever’s next, also.

    Like

  22. D.D. is feeling better \o/

    D.D. has plans for his mental health \o/

    There is hope that beloved TGaB will be back \o/

    New story by the same author \o/

    Author’s birthday on 6th and we get cake-story \o/ \o/ \o/

    Like

Comments are closed.