Hello, everyone!

I decided that my first progress post should be dedicated to a project that’s been about 8 years in the making: Hell/Dolls.  This story is one I’ve held close to my chest, in part because I made the characters and world during high school, and I’ve been able to repolish the plot enough to build a coherent story.

Current Chapter: 7 (plus a prelude)

Pages: 80

Total Word Count: 37,185

In all honesty, the title should probably be reworked, but I’m both stubborn and lazy – too much to change it until the first story is done.

Here is a basic synopsis of the story:

Hell/Dolls takes place in the world of Kiria, a magic land ravaged by malevolent creatures called Baael.  In this story, Vincent Laverse is a former insurgent from a corrupt (and fake) military, and struggles to find a place of his own.  He learns of a missive that allows him to lead a group looking to protect the citizens of a city-state, and gains knowledge and skills alongside his new team.

I’ve been working on this particular iteration of the story for just under a year, though much of what is covered in this story is prequel to the original material I had created back in high school.  It is coming together slowly, but I think with the newly-designed parts and the corrections from my original ideas, this story is coming out just as I want it to.  I tend to listen to it as a Read-Aloud to catch grammatical mistakes that Word misses (yes, I know there are programs and apps out there to do this, but I still prefer Word).

A few more points I want to address, partly because this is my first big post in a looong time, and partly because I feel so passionate about this project.

First: Why is it called “Hell/Dolls”?  And why the slash?

The name Hell/Dolls actually came from a point late in the story, where a character calls his creations based off of the antagonistic creatures “The Hell Dolls” (the creatures in question are Baael; magic and ethereal beings that cause destruction).  This early in the story, however, the name is just a placeholder until that scene comes up… which probably won’t be for a while.  Regarding the slash between the two words, anyone who’s read my blog knows I love anime and manga; one common way of separating words in titles is a slash (another is an x).  In short, these naming points are just because it felt cool when I was younger, and I still really like the name.

Second: Are the chapters going to be available like Touhou, or is it going to be released all at once?

At the current time, I am still debating releasing the chapters for free, though I would like to at least release the first few to get readers engaged with the story.  Ideally, I want to release this story as a real novel when it’s completed, but I realize that a no-name artist popping up from the middle of the arctic desert probably won’t get much traction.  For now, I would like to release the first two chapters (including the prelude) for free when I feel comfortable with where they are.  More than likely, I’ll either drop them on FictionPress or another site… but again, I’m undecided for now.

Third: How long will it take to complete the current “book”?

Because I don’t have a set schedule for writing (I’m currently doing it in my free time, between work, joy-giving experiences, and family), there is no set period for when the book, or even the current chapter, will be done.  As of this moment, each chapter is running about 13 pages, and I usually do about half a page per session (sometimes up to 3 pages, sometimes as little as a single line).  This is not my ideal, and is probably not sustainable, but it is how I tend to work on bigger projects.  With the given pace I’ve been working at, including reviewing and extended breaks, I think I may be done with the first book’s main draft by this time next year – but don’t hold me to that.

Fourth: Will you be updating the progress like this every week / month / year?

I will probably focus on a monthly or half-month check-in on the progress, depending on how much I get done.  The updates probably won’t be as detailed or long-winded as this one, but I will do my best to keep to a schedule.  I would actually like to do an update every month on the 15th, but as I said earlier, my schedule for writing is sporadic at current.

If people start commenting on the blog with questions about the story, I may start doing an *actual* Q&A in these posts.  Until then, please expect regular updates on my progress.

That’s all for now,

Marcosias A. Isif