Tag Archives: update

Update Diary: Hell/Dolls (July 16th, 2025)

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THIS IS TAKING LONGER THAN I INTENDED.

Story of my life.  Before I get into details, here’s the stats for this month:

Current Chapter: 10 (Status and Poison)

Pages: 143

Word Count: 65,015

Before you ask, yes, these are the numbers with the ToC and title page taken out.  About a 2000-word difference from the last post; not great, not terrible.  Could be better, but most of the work done this month was corrections and clarifications, so I think it evens out.

So, as I said, the release is taking longer than I intended – my original goal was to be done with Chapter 10 by now, and have the Prelude and Chapter 1 released for you to read.

To my misfortune, life was extremely busy this past month, and I lost some motivation in the past three weeks.  I was running overtime like crazy, alone for the longest amount of time I’ve been in a while, and just generally bogged down and exhausted.

I did, however, keep listening to the story over and over again to catch mistakes and inconsistencies, and to make sure where the next chapter was headed was where I wanted it to be.  Chapter 10 is going slow, but it is about halfway done, so with any luck, I’ll have the first chapters out by the end of the month (though to be honest, it’s looking more like mid-next-month now…)

I’m doing a few more once-overs when I can only listen, and I’m trying to write after work or on my days off.  Here’s hoping that the schedule sticks!

As a final note, I wanted to share something relatively special upon release.  I’m going to be sharing maps and designs as the chapters come out – maybe one every three releases.  If I’m able to, I would love to release one alongside every chapter, but to do that I would need better skill with the tablet I’m using, or (something I’d love to do) hire an artist for scenes and profiles.  Right now, I’m looking at just releasing the world map of Kiria with the Prelude, but please tell me if you’d be interested in this sort of thing.

For now, back to writing.

-Marcosias Isif

Update Diary: Hell/Dolls (June 18th, 2025)

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I AM LATE BUT I AM HERE~!

I apologize for the delay getting to the story update, but I’ve been finalizing(ish) the prelude and first chapter of the story for release, which should be available sometime this month or next. I’m very excited that we’re so close to release!

In other news, here’s the current status of the series:

Current Chapter: 10 (Status and Poison)

Pages (not including title and ToC): 138

Current Word Count (same): 62,730

I think that I’m nearing the middle of this part of the story, if I’m being honest. I was originally envisioning the first “book” to have 30 or so chapters, including asides. With the way things are playing out writing-wise, I may end up only releasing 25 chapters, if that.

I also wanted to clarify something I may have forgotten to mention in the last update; I had to rearrange some of the paragraphs as I reviewed the story to fit the… “pacing” of the speech and thoughts. I’m not a professional, and I’ll never (truly) claim to be until I release a physical book or something. I rewrite my chapters regularly and I read and listen to my story whenever I can to catch hiccups and mistakes. But I am not perfect, and I have learned to accept that.

The story’s endgame has not changed, just some wording and clarifications fixed or added. Because I haven’t really said anything about the story, I realize it is a completely mystery to anyone reading these updates. But please believe me, I am putting all my effort into making this story enjoyable to some degree.

As I said previously (I think in the March update), I am using Autocrit to help me close the gaps. I want to be very clear about this, however: Autocrit is a support tool for me. I use it to catch repetitive mistakes and unresolved plot threads, but I do not generate any of the text that will be released. I do not like the idea of writing a story completely with AI, and I greatly enjoy creating my own worlds from scratch and mind. I take any suggestions from Autocrit with a grain of salt, but I do trust that the mistakes it catches can help me improve.

Sorry, a lot of infodumping at the last minute, but I felt I should be very clear about everything regarding the story – why I’ve been delayed, what I’m using and why, and my level of dedication to this project. As I said, I’m extremely excited to share this.

Keeping in touch,

-M. Isif

Update Diary: Hell/Dolls (May 15th, 2025)

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Hello again everyone!  A new month, a new update on the progress of my story.  Summer this year is going to be busy, but I will keep updating my progress at least once a month.

Here are the stats for today:

Current Chapter: 9 (Truths and Lies)

Pages: 112

Current Word Count: 59,215

As y’all can see, I’m plugging away at the story at a breakneck pace compared to the last few months.  I did remember this time to omit the counting for the title page and Table of Contents, so these numbers are for the raw story.

I do have something I’d like to ask of anyone willing to answer:

Do you prefer stories with chapter titles, or just chapter numbers?

I personally like stories with chapter titles in case I take a long break from reading something – the names help me remember what is currently happening.  The current story for Hell/Dolls has chapter names (primarily to find story points easily when editing), but I know that a lot of mainstream YA novels don’t have them.

Once I start releasing the chapters, I’d like to consistently provide chapter names if the public prefers.  Ultimately it’s a personal choice, but I’d like to know what others think.

For now, please be patient for the release of the prelude and first chapter!  Thank you to all who read my ramblings and stories!

-Marcosias

Update Diary: Hell/Dolls (April 16th, 2025)

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Good evening!

I’m getting very excited as the day of release comes ever closer, so let’s take a gander at the stats of the story so far:

Current Chapter: 10 (Truths and Lies)

Pages: 115

Current Word Count: *54,554

Uh, something I may have forgotten to correct for was the non-story words for the word count (the title page I had set up and the Table of Contents for ease of editing), so I was posting about 50 words over what the actual story was at.  I will try to remember this for future posts, but for now, please accept my sincere apology for the minor numbers issue.

Based on what I said in my first few diaries, it looks like I’ll be releasing the prelude and first chapter sometime in June or July (fingers crossed, knock on wood, all that good stuff).

I do hope that those that have followed this story from its first announcement enjoy the story just as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Nothing much else I want to say on this, so please hold onto hope until my next post.

Thanks-

M. Isif

Update Diary: Hell/Dolls (March 19th, 2025)

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Hello, everyone!  A quick update on how the development of my story is coming!

Current Chapter: 10 (Truths and Lies)

Pages: 112

Total Word Count: 53,591

We’re so close to releasing the first two chapters, I can almost taste it!  I’m running into some issues with pacing, but we’re slowly working our way to the end of the chapter.

I am still trying to schedule writing time around life events and review material, and I will do my damndest to keep with what I said in my last post; at least two reviews before the end of April.  Spoilers: one’s an Isekai and one’s about AI.  Can you guess what they are?

For now, please look forward to the release of the Prelude and Chapter One of Hell/Dolls!