Chapters written: 4,720 (+111) Chapters to be written (green): 22 (-28) Chapters to be written (orange): 722 (+22) Chapter 20 endings: 508 (+9) Highest orange chapter: 15*** Highest green chapter: 5*** Deepest Chapter: 34 (+2) Slowly whittling away at the green chapters. When those are finished (hopefully in December), the writing priority will change a little: 1) New green chapters 2) Highest rated orange chapter 3) For every orange chapter written, a new ending chapter is written - whether or not the preceding chapter has enough likes for a sequel. Which should lead to a slow "winding down/wrapping up" of existing storylines, if I can keep up the pace. But hey, how many stories have over 4k chapters and over 500 endings? If you missed it, there have also been a couple of new reviews! https://chyoa.com/chapter/Lois-Lane's-Night-Out,-by-Zeebop-Double-Feature.1039183 https://chyoa.com/chapter/Monica-and-Jess-read-Lois-Lane's-Night-Out-by-Zeebop.1047839 And remember to comment! I do try to tweak storylines based on what the readers want to read.
So, for anyone that missed it: 1. Going to do a sequel to the highest-rated orange chapter each day 2. For every orange chapter I cross off, I'm writing an ending chapter (starting with the highest open chapter 19 slot and moving down). That way, there's a parity with how many active branches we have. 3. Other chapters per day will be the highest-rated green chapter. 4. Epilogues still have priority above all else. Going to work on that basis through December, then re-evaluate and see how things stand in 2022.
https://chyoa.com/chapter/What's-This--Another-App!.1065122 As an experiment, I'm trying this storyline aggregator chapter - so that folks that want to jump straight to a storyline that reaches a chapter 20 ending (or epilogues) can get an idea of the storyline, click the link, and just read chapters straight ahead without worrying about making choices or hitting dead ends. It's very spoilerly, and kind of shows how batshit weird the Lex Luthor main branch is...and that's the branch with the least number of full paths!
Here are the stats for 31 Dec 2020: Chapters written: 3,425 Chapters to be written (green): 142 Chapters to be written (orange): 449 Chapter 20 endings: 262 Highest orange chapter: 16 Deepest Chapter: 31 Here are the stats for 1 Jan 2022: Chapters written: 4,861 (+141) Chapters to be written (green): 17 (-5) Chapters to be written (orange): 728 (+6) Chapter 20 endings: 530 (+22) Highest orange chapter: 16* Highest green chapter: 5* Deepest Chapter: 35 (+1) So over all, there has been a lot of progress. I know it doesn't always look like it, but it's there. In 2021 a total of 1,437 chapters were added to the story. That's more than most stories have total!
Things are going a little slow this week; there were a lot more likes than normal and that's thrown the schedule a bit out of whack. Still chipping away at it, though.
Chapters written: 5,000 (+139) Chapters to be written (green): 17 (+0) Chapters to be written (orange): 731 (+3) Chapter 20 endings: 574 (+44) Highest orange chapter: 14**** Highest green chapter: 10* Deepest Chapter: 35 Okay, as is probably apparent the focus on writing has shifted a bit toward maximizing chapter 20 endings, and that's because after several years I've decided to try and wind down LLNO and tie off as many loose ends as possible. Now, for anyone that actually reads the story, don't fret: this isn't going to happen in a week or a month. As things stand if the story received zero more likes, there would still be over 800 chapters to write including ~96 more chapter 20 endings. I expect the winding-down to take at least a year or more at normal writing speeds and reader response. Likes and bookmarks still count for which chapter gets a sequel, I'm just shifting the priorities a little to try and maximize endings. What it does mean, however, is at some point - maybe around March or May - you'll start to see endings before you hit the full 20 chapters. Which, well, we'll cover such things when we get to them. For the moment, the focus is mostly on continuing to hack away at the chapters-to-be-written. The story ain't over yet.
Noticed the likes are slowing down a bit - although you never know when somebody might go on an archive binge - but that's sort of something I've been expecting as I churn through the backlog of chapters-to-be-written, because I'll be writing sequels to chapters which have gotten enough likes for a sequel, but aren't immensely popular chapters in and of themselves...and some of them have been waiting for a long time! But slow and steady wins the...I don't know what you'd call this, it's less a race than an endurance rally. At some point I need to total up the number of active (i.e. no endings yet) branches there are. But no rush on that so long as there are green chapters to be written.
Also, officially hit 600 chapter 20 endings today. Which isn't quite 600 full branches, since a good chunk of chapter 19s got two different endings, but...y'know. LOT of endings. And more to come.
Chapters written: 5,100 (+100) Chapters to be written (green): 17 (+0) Chapters to be written (orange): 741 (+10) Chapter 20 endings: 606 (+32) Highest orange chapter: 16 Highest green chapter: 11*** Deepest Chapter: 35 Not a great month...only a hundred chapters. Had a spate of likes, so most of those green chapters are actually epilogues that need sequels.
In a bit of weirdness, I might have just written the first full path where Lois Lane does not get fucked. I'm not entirely sure because at 625 endings, things tend to...blur together a bit.
Writing is still slow this month, but something to highlight: when I say that I take feedback, requests, and suggestions seriously, it's because I do. So for example, for the chapter A Sorority Clam Bake, the suggestion/request for the follow-up was: While I don't think I completely nailed the landing on this one I did try.
Chapters written: 5,218 (+118) Chapters to be written (green): 9 (-8) Chapters to be written (orange): 720 (-21) Chapter 20 endings: 642 (+36) Highest orange chapter: 16 Highest green chapter: 10*** Deepest Chapter: 35 Didn't get quite as much done this month as I'd like, between doomscrolling news on the war in Ukraine and...life...but y'now, slow progress. All of the green chapters left are epilogues-that-need-to-be-written, which is why I haven't blitzed through them, because I like to give them a little more attention. Likes are also down, but as mentioned, that's kind of expected as I'm basically chewing through the back end of chapters that I couldn't get to due to the massive surge in likes during the start of the pandemic. I won't say the end is in sight - 729 chapters is more than more stories get in a year, and I'm sure more likes will add to that - but modest progress.
It's been a very unproductive month so far, and I've been in a real writing slump, but still chipping away at it.
