Denham Forrest/The Wanderer, mailboxes are now open again. I'm Sorry that it was necessary to close them for a while. I'm not writing again just yet, but we can hope.
Some readers have asked me, (actually informed me that it annoys them,) if a story is complete, why do I insist on posting my longer tales, one chapter at a time?
Well – not always, but most often -- I post the chapters of my stories on consecutive days for one specific purpose. (Although other writers might do so for different reasons.) But my reason really is not for the cliff-hanger effect; although that does very often influence exactly where I chop some tales up.
In most of my mystery type tales, I try to mislead (Or should that be, misdirect?) the reader, with false clues or scents, whenever I can come up with something.
Hopefully not too obvious, but with a little luck they will steer reader’s minds astray. But at the same time, I try (whenever possible) to leave little clues about how the tale will really end.
Now, the only way that I can discover whether my attempted misdirection’s have worked, or not. Is through the feedback emails that come in about those individual chapters.
Very kindly, some readers write to tell me where they think the tale is going as they progress through it. A goldmine of useful information for me (as a writer) is contained in those brief emails.
Through them, I’m learning (I hope) exactly how obvious or hidden I can make those clues to the outcome. And whether hinted at false leads (like Sandra, in Minerva) did their job by muddying the waters a little in the earlier stages of the tale. Some readers, did wonder when she was going to reappear again.
I no-longer post stories over an extended period of time, because I made the decision not to post any tale that isn’t complete. So when the first chapter appears on the Internet that whole tale will be along very quickly.
However I do have to leave at least a twenty-four hour period between posting each chapter. To give those very kind people (who I'm greatly indebted to) the time to read the chapter and then forward their observations on to me. If the following chapter adds (as it could and should do) another clue, then the people, who do write, might not bother to mention their earlier impressions.
But I also have to add, that there are also times when I think a story is so long that I split it into chapters, purely to give the reader convenient points where they can take a break off from reading. Navigations points if you will.
One can’t fold down the corner of a page on a computer screen like you can in a hard-copy book, and not everyone reads the whole of a tale at one sitting, or on the same computer. (Some folks have to actually do their bosses work sometimes, and they might have to finish reading a story at home, or even tomorrow lunch time.)
Besides, here for instance, I use three computers on a regular basis. My main computer is in my study, laptop in the lounge and I use my workshop/bench computer when I’m working on other people’s machines. Switching from one to another, as circumstance dictates.
DC aka Denham Forrest
I thank everybody who has written to me concerning Minerva.
But I'm afraid that (what with feedback coming in from both sites) I have been overwhelmed a little. To which I have to add the fact that we have the builders in here, yet again causing havoc as they are want to do.
I'm working my way through my in-boxes slowly (in turn) and hopefully I will be able to acknowledge all of your emails within the next few days.
DC
I'm pleased to be able to announce that one of my longer tales 'Minerva', is nearing completion. About 38,000 words, so a longer story, not a novella or anything.
It has been over a year in the writing, (as I’ve been reminded by Sue). Like many others, after the first rush of enthusiasm, when I started writing the tale -- that got the first few chapters written and away to proofreaders -- the story was put to one side as other ideas crept to the fore of my mind.
At regular intervals I‘ve dug it (and the others) out again and added bits and pieces to it, as the mood hit me right.
But a couple of weeks back, I decided that it was about time this particular tale hit the sites, so everything else has been put on hold.
Especially since a certain old sod (who shall remain unnamed), and who having read some of the earlier chapters, took it in his head to post an announcement on his personal site, that the tale was about to go up here.
Whatever, his actions focused the mind quite effectively, because I received a few “Okay, where is the bloody thing then?” Emails. What a charming readership I have? ;-)
As I said, the last chapter is nearing completion, and should be off to of proofreading tonight or tomorrow. But because there are ten chapters, I figure I’ll be safe to start submitting them to Lezeez’s two sites tomorrow. The story -- like most of my tales -- contains no overt sex, but does not ignore the obvious. And -- somewhat unusually for one of mine – has little in the way of what is sometimes referred to as ‘strong language’.
Some the latter chapters might be replaced later as they are returned from some of my other proofreaders, that is if we’ve missed anything grammatically. But the tale will remain basically as it is.
DC
For some inexplicable reason reader scoring on ‘Act Naturally!’ somehow got itself turned off during the day. All very odd, because I didn’t turn the feature off when I submitted the tale, I’m sure, and a couple of my regular readers have informed me that they did score the tale earlier. But on logging-on to my laptop this evening, I discovered that the feature was switched off on the tale. I’ll have to enquire of ‘The man’ later.
All going to plan another little tale of emotional nonsense will go up tomorrow. It kind-a depends on how my night goes. I went shopping with my significant other today and I’ve been dead to the world since our return. Hey bugger, I wonder what happened to the guy who regularly used to work twenty-four-hour days all his life? That sure ain’t me anymore.
Folks in the antipodes should beware, one of my offspring should have arrived in Sidney yesterday. Although as of yet, he hasn’t deigned to report to us his safe arrival; but that’s the younger generation ain’t it? It’s not unusual for us not to hear from the little sod, unless he has something to gripe about.
DC