[KeithXZ]

Excellent start.  I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.

[KeithXZ]

This is really good Kate.  I really appreciate you taking time to develop the characters, to develop a plot that is not straight forward, and to build suspense.

I'm very glad you decided to come back to the story to complete it.

I agree this is another classic.

– Keith

[KeithXZ]

Hi StM, I enjoyed that.

[KeithXZ]

Hi StM, I'm glad you're still working on this story.  It is coming along well.

– Keith

[KeithXZ]

I really really hope you'll be posting the rest of this …

😉

[KeithXZ]

Thank you  for the laugh crazyfck, that was very funny!

[KeithXZ]

Hi StM –

I read your reply after Chapter 8. 

Chapter 9 is very good.  I would say, don't rush things, let the story come.  And if it takes more time and more pages it takes more time and more pages.

Just so long as the plot continues to develop, and the characters continue to  be revealed and then evolve, and things don't become repetitive, that is the key — at least in my opinion.

I'm a mainframe computer programmer, and the last time I was unemployed, 3 years ago now, I wrote about a dozen PC computer security FAQs at another site.  On the average each took about 18 hours of effort on my part to create, read feedback from security specialists and amateur computer enthusiasts, make corrections and clarifications, and repeat that cycle feedback/correction cycle over an elapsed time of 4 to 6 days, until each FAQ was reasonably clear and concise for the target audience. 

A lot of effort, but it was a great feeling to see the hit counts after each was completed.

Without the few "thank-you's" and the gratification on seeing the hit-count for the first couple of FAQs, I wouldn't have carried on.

It is not exactly the same thing as writing fiction, but similar enough I think that I can sympathize.

– Keith

[KeithXZ]

Thank you for continuing Dicey's story St Mercy.

There are two ways people read stories on the web.  All-at-once, and chapter-by-chapter over the weeks as they are written.

It is always harder for people to follow stories chapter-by-chapter over the weeks.

I've looked through the archives over at DtV, and I've found some fine stories that continued, and built, and then suddenly stopped after 4 or 5 installments.  The last 1/2 or the last 1/3 of the story was never written.

Looking back now, my suspicion is that the readers following along as these stories were written must have lost track of the plot.  Without readers providing feedback at the time, the authors probably figured their work was unappreciated, and moved on to something else.

But coming along later, and reading what was written all-at-once, is much easier.  There is no hint of what the past problem was.

I think that Dicey's story has the potential to become a very popular well-read story when it is complete.  People will sit down, and read chapter after chapter, over a day or two, and they will really appreciate the character development and plot twists.

I don't know what you have in mind, but Second Chance might need a full-length novel to tell its story.  That would be a pretty ambitious undertaking.  But, as I say, while people may have trouble reading it a chapter at a time, reading it continuously is much easier.

So far, you are doing very well.  I am enjoying her story very much.

(I do wonder what tools the site has if you make a wrong turn with the plot and want to go back and correct it.  The longer a story is, I suspect, the greater the likelihood of any author needing to do take a different branch.)

[KeithXZ]

This is a very good start.  I can't wait to read more.

[KeithXZ]

Very good.

[Author]

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