NOVEL NEXT Poll: What to do with the earlier 3 year time-skip
Hello. Some of you who have had an eye on Hell's Underworld might have noticed I burned out and stalled hard for a good while. Well, that down time has given me the chance to think some things over in regards to my handling of Key to the Void. I'm hoping that doing something with this might be the thing to break me out of this slump and get writing again.
There was some world building stuff I'd wanted to get out in terms of the Hidan that I never got the chance to put in arc 3 since it all became very fast-paced after things in the city started. So, I was considering the idea of possibly writing a bit of what happened during the time-skip in order to get some of that world-building in there.
That said, the stuff that is skipped is stuff I can very much write around and have the story work out fine even if I don't explain it during the main story. That being the case, standard high-tier writing levels actually say I shouldn't include it, since this means it's just padding.
The stuff I was thinking of including are essentially just things that are explained in the "Culture of the Hidan" chapter of my world bible I've posted up as a companion to this series.
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/357599-key-to-the-void-world-bible/chapter/357634/
Essentially, instead of that just being information presented dryly in an informative document like that, it'd wind up being played out in terms of narrative. It'd also allow for more details to be presented on the "Key to the Void" meditation and combat style Asa is teaching to the boys, and go a little deeper into the magic of this world.
So, here's what I'm wondering about and why I am posting up this poll. I'd like to see what readers think in terms of how to include this information.
- I could write it and try to integrate it in with the main story, probably posting it as new chapters now and then moving them to their proper place in the story after the slice-of-life with the Hidan arc is completed. This would allow me to easily make mention of the world-building stuff mentioned there later.
- I could post these 'lost years' as a companion story, not part of the actual series, and there for anyone interested to check out as a side-lore not required reading. This would mean the information is there for anyone who's interested, but I won't be able to include any of that world-building in the main story without first re-explaining it in the main series. (These would be explanations far easier to include as part of this 'slice of life with the Hidan' arc.)
- Just ignore this idea all together and also ignore Hell's Underworld which I've been stuck on and resume the main Key to the Void storyline as some people have stated I should have done from a while back.
- Ignore all of this completely and get back to Hell's Underworld so I can get it up to parallel with Key to the Void faster.
