Greater Good: Official Discussion (Audiobook Now Available!)

[Nathan Butler]

I suppose it makes more sense to post updates about Greater Good in its own thread, rather than continuing the Echoes thread that was about, well, an entirely different series.

So . . .

In 2006, I released my first novella, Echoes, as a print novella (via Lulu.com), an ebook (also through Lulu.com), and as an online audiobook via both Podiobooks.com and StarWarsFanworks.com. Later in 2006 and in early 2007, I began work on a sequel, Unity, and was considering a short story tie-in, entitled Engagement. After working for a while on Unity, though, I felt like the story was not going the way I wanted it to, so I decided to put the Echoes universe "on the shelf" to pursue another writing project. (An annotated version of Echoes may still appear, however, as well as an edition that also includes some other short stories as a sort of anthology, but that's all uncertain at this point.)

The new story that I began working on is called Greater Good.




As it stands, I'm through writing the first six chapters of Greater Good, which will be substantially larger than Echoes. My guess is that Greater Good will be around 40 chapters, as compared to Echoes' 20. When comparing the "pocket size" release of Echoes to what exists so far of Greater Good, the first six chapters of Greater Good amount to about 68 pages of content, whereas Echoes was 158 content pages, and was already in the middle of Chapter 10 by the time I hit page 68 (meaning, obviously, that the prose of Greater Good is a bit more dense and detailed, since it has only taken six chapters to reach where Echoes was by the middle of Chapter 10).

At this point, I am not sure whether Greater Good will ever appear as an online audiobook in the same way that Echoes did. Given the amount of work going into it, I'd rather release it as a print novel. If nothing else, I'll probably release it as a print novel, then wait quite a while for an audio version.

I'm also figuring that if I self-publish Greater Good the same way I self-published Echoes, I will probably go with CreateSpace rather than Lulu this time around (or both) in order to reach a broader audience online.

As for the story, it deals with the idea of genocide within the context of a world wherein telepathy, telekinesis, and time travel (of a sort) are real. We will again have two central protagonists, as was the case in Echoes, but they obviously won't be Darren Fox and Jeremiah Henson again. There is also a bit more focus on the antagonist this time, as his/her identity and the nature of the individual is less of a surprise than it had to be in Echoes.

We do, however, begin with a murder, just as we do in Echoes, so there are some parallels between the two tales. Both create unique "universes," though, so don't expect any crossovers.

So . . . yeah. Greater Good is well underway.

It also now has a website, here:

http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/greatergood/

[Nathan Butler]

A brief note of comparison and an update:

I'm currently writing Chapter 9 of the overall Greater Good novel, and the rest has been roughly outlined.

At present, the rough draft stands at 23,000 words or so, which is only 10,000 shy of the word count of the entire Echoes novella.

[Nathan Butler]

Update:

Over 33,000 words now. Chapter 13 is almost complete, but it is possible that Chapter 13 will be split into two chapters (13 and 14).

I've also started to mentally revise the next big action sequence to be a little more unusual and visually interesting.

I have also, for those who liked Echoes, reformatted the printed version of Echoes a bit (justified, new chapter heading font, drop caps to start each chapter, etc.), which has me a bit more interested in continuing forward with the annotated version of the story. I am forging ahead every so often with more footnotes for that.

I have also taken the two short stories that appeared on The Butlerniverse and formatted them in the same fashion, so that they can be added as bonus content to the end of the next print version of Echoes (the annotated one).

My question: When I put out the annotated version of Echoes, should it also include an unannotated version before the annotated version? Two copies of the same story in the same book, as I've seen with some books out there like Ayn Rand's Anthem?

[leandar]

What do you mean by annotated version? Is that like some sort of commentary running alongside the actual print story or is there something else to it?

[Nathan Butler]

Yeah, like extensively footnoted. Basically a "behind the scenes" version for those who are curious, which also adds extra value for those who get the printed version, rather than just listening to the audio version.

[leandar]

An annotated version sounds pretty sweet to me. If you want to do it both ways I'd say go ahead, but if all the footnotes are below the main story, what's the need?

[Nathan Butler]

Well, some people wouldn't want to have them visible while reading the story for the first time, given that they would include spoilers for later parts of the book. That's the only real concern.

[leandar]

In that case, do the un-annotated version first followed by the annotated version.

[Nathan Butler]

A quick update: I've been writing as I get time during dead time at work (when not planning, calling parents, etc.). At the moment, the current "working" version includes up through the middle of Chapter 16, runs about 250 words shy of the 40,000 word mark, and runs 167 pages (9 pages beyond the total page count of Echoes). I'm looking for ideas as to how to delineate between the present and flashbacks (flash forwards?) to the personal experiences (in the future) of our time traveling lead character and his quarry. I have been writing with all of the flash-forwards/backs in italics, but when put into print form, that doesn't work very well for long blocks of text. I'd rather not have to preface each and every change with a place/time notation like the Republic Commando books, but I'm starting to think I might have to. Any thoughts on this? And is there anyone particularly interested in doing a read of what exists so far to provide feedback that would truly read the entire 40,000 word text thus far and provide timely feedback?

[Jedireaper]

As a huge fan, (and hopefully a friend), I would be glad to do it, and tell you what I think of it, though I will warn you. My Beta-Reader skills are just nominally below what you are probably wanting but I'll certainly tell you what I think... I just want a signed copy when its released (I'm kidding but wouldn't say no...