The Demon King, Book One: The Temple of Everlasting Autumn

[rynling]

It's done! Sweet Jesus in heaven, I finished it. Hallelujah!!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26956795/chapters/65793082

That sure did take almost exactly four months. Now I'm going to take another month to edit it.

And then I'll see where I can go from there.

Comments

[renegadefolkhero]

Congrats!!

For whatever reason (spidey sense?), I thought about your story this morning and finally downloaded it. I was waiting until it was mostly finished since I'm the worst serial reader ever. Anyway, I must have *just* missed your update. I am cheerfully downloading a second time.

I know this experiment isn't quite over since you only just posted the ending, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on posting original fic on AO3 and how/if it works for you.

[rynling]

Oh my goodness, thank you! It's very self-indulgent and probably filled with ridiculous typos, but I hope there are some good bits. Please don't feel pressured to leave kudos or comments or anything like that, of course.

I'm going to start editing first thing tomorrow morning, and with any luck the novella will be stronger and sharper by the beginning of March. After that, I guess I'll start putting together a query letter and pitch packet to send to agents. And also stocking up on Kleenex, because I'm sure there will be tears.

My experience of posting on AO3 was excellent. I've had a lot going on recently, and the pandemic and shitty weather haven't helped. Writing this story has been a pleasure, but still. It's been difficult to get anything done without having a metaphorical gun pointed to my head, and posting each chapter on AO3 in a series of separate segments has been the softest and most gentle gun I could have asked for.

One very kind person left a series of lovely comments; but, for the most part, I don't think any given non-pornographic original work is ever going to be all that visible on AO3. The combination of not having to deal with the mortifying ordeal of being seen and the possibility that anyone could read the story ended up being a type of low-pressure motivation to keep going while helping me keep the more obnoxious tendencies of my writing in check.

Once I get to the point of sending the story to an agent, I'll restrict access to the work on AO3 so that it's not searchable, and I'll probably delete it altogether if a miracle happens and someone buys it. Since it didn't get that much traffic, I don't think this will feel like a sacrifice. I've also been picking up a lot of chatter on Twitter about agents and publishers not considering something "previously published" if it's been posted on AO3 or someone's personal blog, so I don't think there are any real consequences.

My experience with submitting original fiction to various magazines during the past few months has taught me that it's essentially a meat market. If nothing else, posting on AO3 has helped me feel a little more human.