Oathbreaker: A Dark Fantasy Web Serial

Arc 1 Retrospective

Hi! SovWrites here. So, this project has been a long time in the making. And I don’t just mean that in the sense of actually writing it. What do I mean by that?

Well, I’ve been writing a long time. I started out with really bad Halo/Half-life crossover fan fiction in middle school, and kept branching from there. As a kid I wrote for the same reason I read, or binge watched tv dramas, or played video games — as an escape from a difficult home life. I’m sure many folks have a similar story.

As I got older, I realized I enjoyed writing. I was just as entertained by the stories in my head as the ones I consumed on screen or in print. I wanted to be good at it — probably because I wasn’t good at much else. I started getting into the hobby as a craft, trying to figure out how other story tellers pulled off their stunts, how I could do it. I worked hard to find a voice.

I started getting interested in web serials about seven years back, when a friend hooked me onto works like A Practical Guide to Evil and Worm (plus other Wildbow content). I had this epiphany — I could be sharing my work with people online, without the stresses of publishing and editors. I started rewiring my plots into more episodic content, stopped worrying about traditional divisions by book or trilogy. It made things a lot looser, made me enjoy the process more. But that wasn’t the end of the uphill climb — I spent years with false starts, not finding a project I felt truly passionate about or enjoyed for more than a few chapters. I drove my writing workshop crazy, changing my stories or dropping stories every few months.

Why am I reminiscing like this? Well, I’ve got my writing out on the internets now. I’ve got a single arc of this story successfully published online. I’ve proven to myself that I can do this. There were some pitfalls, some things I’m not satisfied with, some hiccups and instances of poor planning on my part, but I’ve done a thing that, a few years ago, seemed like it might never happen. I almost gave up on my writing, convinced myself it sucked and I’d have to accept perpetual writer’s block.

Glad to know I was wrong!

I didn’t expect Oathbreaker to become the project that made the cut to web serialdom. The original version is very different from what I’ve shared here — a very spur of the moment, self indulgent romance based on a pair of DnD characters who didn’t make it into an actual game, but whose narrative I felt endlessly compelled by. That led to another epiphany — trying to make every chapter perfect, every idea full-proof before I put pen to paper, was driving me nuts.

The project I started on a whim and expected not to last more than a few chapters, I’m still writing a year and a half later and feel confident enough to share. It’s almost a cliche to say “write for yourself,” but in my case it holds true. I started writing the stories I wanted to read rather than the ones I thought other people would be impressed by. Since that choice, I’ve been doing something like 15k words a week on average.

So that’s sort of a broad look at how I got here, but what we care about is the story itself, right? It consumes enough real estate in my head, at least. So where do I go from here? Well, Oathbreaker is far from done. These first 31 chapters are, if anything, a proof of concept. I wanted to spend time in Alken’s head, create vibe, foreshadow some future plot beats and build atmosphere. I wanted to dive into the cosmic-scale mess that is his life, his quest, and the questions that drive his story. Did I succeed?

Well, that’s a tough question. On one hand, I’m just happy to have gotten this much done. On the other, I’m never truly satisfied with my own work. My writing workshop can attest to this, probably with a barrage of eye rolls and “it’s fine as it is!” But the truth is, I find satisfaction in improving, in doing better with each new iteration. Eventually though, a version does have to stick. Part of the point of posting my story online was to force that.

With that said, here’s what I think I could have done better. One: pacing. I’m always struggling with pacing. I’ll go on too long with a description or tangent, and the next thing I know I’ve got little room for actual plot. Two: pacing again. For all my rambling, I think this arc could have been longer. I originally wanted Alken to spend more time in the castle with the misfit band of ne’er do-wells and their conflicting motives and goals. I ended up dropping the ball on that. I wanted Catrin’s alliance with Al to be more of a slow burn deal, with his prejudices and distrust as a paladin who’s been bitten before (pun intended) coming between them. Then I needed the baron to give Alken something to do to prove himself, got sidetracked by the elves, and rushed the conclusion…

I’d do it different on a second draft, but I’ve been on this one for months. So, something to consider for the future. Speed up some things, slow down others, and maybe find a better outlining process.

Olliard and Lisette ended up being another problem. In my original projections, they were allies, with the doctor developing a strong rapport with Alken that eventually culminated in Olliard taking umbrage with Catrin, the one good person in a nest of bad, because of his own Dr. Van Helsing style prejudices. The conclusion there would be much the same. As it is, Olliard had a fairly small part in the plot with a very big part in the end that maybe got a bit too deus-ex machina, and I ended up feeling pretty glum about how I handled that.

My original idea was that this would be a very Ravenloft/Castlevania inspired plot, with this band of misfit do-gooders struggling through a back country full of monsters, their own monstrous tendencies eventually compromising them. What ended up happening was that I sort of meandered my way to a conclusion. Solid premise, shaky execution. Another thing I need to work on.

All that being said, this is web fiction. I didn’t expect it to be perfect. Hopefully, the plot is still parsable enough to keep people invested through the little hiccups. These are issues I’ll be taking into account going forward. I think I became wrapped up in wanting my arcs to be shorter, say 20 chapters or so each, when what I need to do is let an arc take as long as it needs to in order to get the story I want to tell across. I need to work on my character building as well.

Finally, the protagonist himself. Alken can be tough to write. I do stand by my decision to do a first person POV — Al is simply too taciturn to work as a main perspective unless you’re in his head, getting that internal monologue. My original draft was in third person, and he wasn’t such a sad sack then, but I need him to be kind of a sad sack considering his job involves ritualized murder… otherwise, it’s a bit hard to draw sympathy for him. His voice is something I’m constantly working on.

With all that navel-gazing out of the way, I do really appreciate anyone who’s been following the story. If you took the additional time to read this, then I doubly thank you. As of right now, I do not have anything like a patreon — I don’t want finances to be a motivator for my writing, and I work an hourly job that keeps me fed. That being said, it’s something I may do in the future, when I have more of my stuff online.

For now though, I’m currently editing the next arc, revising some chapters, adding new ones. I don’t expect it to slow down my posting schedule. I may drop down to two chapters a week if I feel like I’m getting burnt, but that isn’t much of a risk presently. I’m going to post an interlude with a bit of a teaser for the next arc, some foreshadowing and lore tidbits, and then I expect to have the first chapter of the next part of the story up next Monday.

Thanks guys,

SovWrites