Q & A

Someone left the following question in the comments to my previous post:

Another question - feel free not to answer it - but how many chapters do you plan to write? While I'll obviously be devastated if it ends, it'd be interesting to know where Joe and co. are placed in the entire scheme of the story.

I've been meaning to mention something about that. My best guess is that we're at about the halfway point. Whether that means 40 percent finished or 60 percent finished, I can't say for sure. I tend to lean more toward the lower number.

From about the fifth chapter I've had a strong idea for how the story plays out and what happens to everybody, but as I write, I come up with new characters and situations, so it continues to draw out. And while I don't expect anything to come along to change my thinking about the overall plot, I can't say for sure. My understanding of the characters and their relationships changes as I write.

It also might be helpful to state that this story doesn't end at graduation. That's not a spoiler. If this were a book you could pick up around the corner, that would be clear on the jacket description. It seemed fair to mention it now, because I don't want anyone to have the impression that if certain plot lines seem like they're in full force as graduation approaches, we're suddenly going to reach the conclusion. It's going to play out in due course.

All that being said -- who knows? Initially, I would have guessed that the story would run about 20 chapters. Maybe this will be 500 chapters long and I'll be writing it into my eighties. I obviously don't expect that to happen, but this format gives me a lot of freedom. Thanks for indulging me.

Chapter 16 is posted.

You can read it here.

I hope it's as fun and interesting to read as it was to write.

How we got here; where we're going

"How did you end up here?"

"I'm not Sartre or Camus. How do any of us end up here?"

-Joe College, Part 12

Just wanted to explain a little about what's going to happen on this site.

Its main purpose is to post announcements when a new chapter finishes and goes online. Some of you have written asking whether I have a message board or e-mail list that would serve that purpose. Answers: no, and this seemed more organized and easier. If you have Google Reader or a similar RSS subscription, you'll get automatic updates when a new post goes live. Otherwise, just click back at your convenience. Easy!

I might, from time to time, post about other things. I'm going to be disciplined about it. When I post, it'll be directly about the story, or a topic that touches on the story but goes a little beyond its four corners. By that I mean certain books or movies that I've maybe had in mind, backstory on some of the music that I try to fold in, or an occasional detail about the writing process.

I'm going to avoid plot spoilers or anything that adds my own interpretations on the story. I love that everybody seems to read it a little differently. Detracting from that would be a shame.

This will never be a personal blog, where I ramble about what happened on my Saturday night or where I went on vacation, etc.

Lastly: news! Chapter 16 of "Joe College" is written. I finished it about a week before I finished Chapter 15. It's more than 19,000 words -- so, significantly longer than even super-long Chapter 10 -- and very different from the story's other installments.

I'll be away from the laptop for awhile, but when I'm back, it'll get another close read, and will post by the end of August.

Thanks for checking out the site. I hope I never use it to say something boneheaded.