Well, bugger, I've made quite a mess.
As you've no doubt noticed, my updating pattern of late has been both erratic and almost non-existent. This is partly down to my own laziness, but mostly because of a realization that I haven't known what to do with.
I did not plan this out properly.
I had the plot mostly figured out (until my proof reader pointed out how daft some of my ideas were), but I fell flat on my face with the characters, and in some respects the world building. Fact is, I didn't get a notepad and put down character arcs or very important details about the world. This coupled with the sheer size of what Sovereignty would have become, has left me with an oil pan fire I frantically tried to put out, only to burn the bloody house down.
The truth of Benjamin Franklin's words (despite being an arch traitor to the Crown. The matter of 1776 will be settled!) have become utterly apparent to me. "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."
The same is to be said of all my current fics. I was overly enthusiastic and thought I'd got things mostly under control, but as I've explained…I really didn't.
On top of everything else, I've had a change in outlook on life. Beforehand I never thought I'd amount to much with writing, having an attitude of "that'll do" and starting out fics to "fix" things I hated. Now, since I undertook a huge change in my lifestyle that has lost me almost two stone in weight, "that'll do" simply won't suffice. As a writer, I'll never be entirely happy with my work, but I want to feel a tinge of satisfaction when I'm about to put up a new chapter. Not to mention my fics aren't merely "fixes" anymore; I feel they've blossomed into their very own things, which again requires a discarding of the "that'll do" attitude.
They deserve better.
Does this mean, however, that Sovereignty will go on the same pile as Nobody Dies or Shinji and Warhammer 40k? Of course not, giving up is for wusses. This is no announcement of a hiatus, this is a declaration of rebirth.
Henceforth, I am restarting all of my fics so I may give them the thought and love they deserve. Through this I can give you, my dear readers, the higher quality you deserve. Coupled with an improvement in my prose (after a few years of writing that becomes inevitable) and a recognition that "bigger is not more" (so that'll mean smaller chapters) we may have something just about decent on our hands.
However, this will take time. I want to spend a year thinking things through and writing, before I'd like to present my reforged fics. This doesn't mean I am going silent, far from it. From now, 5th August 2018 to 5th August 2019, I will be doing a monthly Q and A. Not only will your glorious Emperor answer your questions as best he can, he'll give you updates on progress and snippets of what is to come.
The first Q and A is what you see before you.
Before you ask any questions though, some further information. As part of Evangelion Sovereignty's restructuring, it will no longer be called that.
I brought up a while back that I intended to try and split the behemoth story into four "books," and I shall run with this idea. The series shall be called "Sovereignty of Evangelion," and the four books shall be as follows.
Arrival
Wrath
Testing
Culmination
I'm planning for each one to come in at under two hundred thousand words, but there could be exceptions to this.
All my fics will be getting an update such as what you've just read, and I'll put it up in all the places they are posted. I refuse to just vanish off the face of the Earth and leave you in the dark.
Now, I am equipped with knowledge from past mistakes, a better understanding of the writing craft due to reading quite a few books on the matter, and a proof reader (an irritable and uncompromisingly blunt grammar Nazi who's somehow managed to put up with me. Otherwise known as, precisely what I need). With all this in hand, what else could this project meet with but at least some modicum of success?
By the way, the Q and A bit begins now. Fire away, my dear readers!