When it’s done?

April 28th, 2012

Hey guys,

Another book update. In the next month I should finish the final edit of the book. From there I still have a number of articles to add, a visual reference to put together, formatting, book art and all that business. I’m hoping that everything will be finished in 3-4 months, although I have been wrong before…

I know that it’s been a long wait. Originally my plan was to write a short 60-120 page book on Wario Land 4 as preparation for a 300-400 page analysis of Metroid Prime. I reasonably assumed that the Wario Land 4 book would take about 8 months to complete, 4 months writing, 4 months editing. As I started editing in August last year though, the Wario Land 4 book evolved into the planned Metroid Prime book in terms of size and scope. This expansion has been the source of the constant delays. Despite the wait, the final edit is much more fleshed out than the drafts you can find here on the site.

Once I’ve finally completed the book, I’m planning on doing a bit of promotion. So interviews, podcasts, pitching excerpts and so on. I’m not expecting the book to sell very much, but as a radical advocation for games analysis, I’m hoping that I can use it to challenge some of the issues in this space. I hope to talk more about this later.

I’ll also be back to my regular schedule too and have already prepared notes for another 30 posts. Until I’ve finished the book though, it’s still gonna be hush hush around here, so hold tight just a little longer.

I almost forgot to mention that I made a few modifications to the site a few months ago. I installed the Disqus commenting system, redid the tags on each post and changed the categories. Let me know what you think. ^_^

Probably about another 3 months of this…

February 2nd, 2012

Hey guys,

It’s been a good 3 months since my last update here. The good news is that I’m basically on track with the plan I laid out last post. I came back home to Australia in early December and have spent from then until now labouring away all day, almost every day for the past 2 months. I’m one agonising article short of finishing the double edit and have finished all the topical essays. After this I’ve got to re-do much of the first segment of the book, add a handful of extra articles and review everything else. I’m guessing that it’ll take me another 3 months before I’m ready for release. It’s a bit hard to tell since I’m not sure how my free time is gonna pan out when I get back to China next week. The good thing is that I’m fortunate enough to have found a job which offers favourable working hours. I’m thinking that, once formatted, the book will stretch out to 350-400 pages–much more than the 120 or so I assumed this project would take.

I’ve been contemplating what to do after the project is completed and have settled on a return to blogging and to start another book. Actually, I have plans for several books, all of which should be shorter and more topical. I think that I’ll keep hush on that until I’ve actually finished them….For now though, I need to struggle through more editing.

Timetable to Completion

October 21st, 2011

And there I was thinking that editing would be a breeze. Instead I’m pouring more of myself into the project than before. The more time I invest, the more I realise that I need even more time to edit and extend the book. It’s not all bad. I’m hitting a high benchmark with each edit revealing another bit of detail I can add or some way to remove unnecessary words. The end result is going to be dense. I can assure you of that. I’m hoping it will set a new standard for the way we talk about games.

I’ve outlined what I think will be a realistic timetable for the final phase of the book, granted that I don’t crash and burn. The next 7 weeks of finishing up the levels will be the hardest. After that it should be smooth sailing. Although I said that before, didn’t I?

October, November, December – Finish the master edit

December, January, February, March – Add topical essays and other articles, prepare reference material and online portal, and do a final edit.

April – Prepare the book for publication

Thanks for being patient. I’m eager to finish this thing and get started on the next project.

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