AN: After 14 chapters, I'm starting to see how hard it is to write a story this big and keep it flowing smoothly. I feel like every time I tackle a small scene it grows bigger and bigger until it's half a chapter long because every plot hole i try to fill makes two more. i feel like i should have started with a smaller story. something with less characters. At this point i have two other word documents open behind the one i'm working on to try to keep all the characters straight. All that tells me is that i tried to keep too many periphery characters alive. i can see why TheBlackHand wrote his story after the war. it's easier to tell a story post war with adult characters and the war plugs a lot of plot holes. (i.e. "What happened to blank?" "he didn't make it." sad face, move on)

i Also applaud all the thousands of authors that write good stories of young Harry in school fighting the war he's not prepared for with school yard spells and his schoolmates. it's really fucking hard to do. Mostly because the HP book series is full of plot holes that don't hold up to deeper thought, and when you do think about it the old man is either nuttier than squirrel shit or a very dark lord. and if that's the case how do you fight that and make it believable? Also as much as i want to spend ten chapters on building up SSI and how hard it is to pick a company car that all feels kind of like a waste of time if the world is on fire.

To fix this story i'm going to end it here and start over. i'm going to go through with a machete and start lopping off big parts of chapters. I'm going to start chopping off unneeded scenes and try to condense some stuff. i also need to focus on the war and not the world building too much. people have to die/not show up in the story. every new character i add to the world makes it too big so someone has to go. if i add the Grangers and the Tonks' then i can't deal with Weasleys and Bones. also i have to keep the story smaller in the beginning. the first story should be 20-25 chapters and only be about Harry and a small group of friends and muggle soldiers fighting the war with the help of the bank and some outside friends. they have to stay in the Muggle UK or Paris for the most part. it has to be a small war story over a year or two with a lot of death to make the world smaller. all these parents and adults have to go with the exception of a few. just like TheBlackHand did in IHS and a thief's tale. The next story can be about a post war Harry starting SSI and becoming the cool globetrotting spy with his friends like Harry Steel.

I'm also going to start time jumping more. cut all the extemporaneous dialog and just get on with it. a few chapters of set up that spand a week or two, a montage to cover training that spans a few months, and then each chapter after that covers a day of the war. it could be two days in a row or six, or it could be weeks in between days. again i can see why a Thief's Tale is told in a flashback in 12,000 words. You don't need every scene to include 5,00 words of dialogue. the story should flow in and out of time jumps to get to the end in a fun and entertaining way.

but as of right now this is the end of this story. I'm sorry but it's too much extra crap (i made a Quidditch league for God's sake. what the hell was i thinking.) i'm going to take a few weeks and see if i can start over. i'll knock out the first few chapters (they should mostly be the same. or maybe after i start rewriting there might be huge changes) then i'll start posting them under the title Harry Steel: The beginning. Depending on how things are going and the number of readers I still have at that point. i'll set a schedule i can keep up with and start posting chapters. I hope you guys come along for the ride. if you don't i understand. sorry for the false start. but this story is a hydra at this point and every head i cut off, two more pop up. at a certain point you have to stop cutting off heads. see you in a few weeks.