September Changelogs

I have started the process of overhauling the structure of the Say Nope to the Trope Serial (the format the story will be presented in). It’s been on my mind for weeks but knowing the size of the task that awaits me, I’ve only spent the last week building the new structure. It has created more work for me but I think it is worth it.

The original structure looks like this:

1 Season = 3 Volumes, 1 Volume = 12 Chapters, 1 Chapter = 4,000 Words

Say Nope to the Trope is projected to be 6 Seasons. The bulk of the plot structure has already been determined. I already know how it’s ending and I know what I want to focus on in each season and volume. What I’m doing now is actively writing the chapters and tweaking them as more of the characters and plot comes to me. 

I find plot and character comes to me more naturally when I simply write, but that’s the entire point of the serial project. I can get carried away without proper consideration to pacing and length and so I have been practicing building writing guides to at least keep me on track. The Say Nope to the Trope Series will literally be an ongoing honing of several writing skills, the ability to consistently write in a contained format being one of them.

Now, the main issue that I came up against with the above structure is that there hasn’t been enough room to properly expand on the settings and characters and the volumes suddenly feel crushed in terms of pacing.

1 Volume is intended to ≈ 1 Year of Reyn’s life

The other issue I was concerned about is that doing a little bit of research determined that Wattpad responds better to chapters that are about 2,000~ words. Quick and easy to digest snacks. This wasn’t too hard to accommodate, as all of the current chapters split fairly neatly in half, but I did worry about the sheer number of parts existing in one season. With that in mind, I do have the option to build a “Series” per season and so each volume can have its own “book”. 

I also plan on uploading the chapter in full onto my own website so that if people prefer to read them as whole chapters, they will have that option. It will also mean that I will have a bit more control over the serial over there. I haven’t decided whether I will eventually trickle it off Wattpad but I have considered migrating after seeing how the first season or two goes.

Now, what’s effectively a 6 year commitment, is definitely a big undertaking. I can get overly excited when it comes to anything that involves planning, and I have the tables upon tables just of the timeline for Say Nope to the Trope (the plot and the writing, editing and publishing schedule) to prove it. I can get ambitious because it looks fun on paper and then it often turns out what I’ve planned out doesn’t work.

I’ve gotten way better at doing this for myself and so far, I set fairly realistic goals for Say Nope to the Trope. I haven’t been sticking to the timeline to a T, but I have been wrapping up each segment as it’s been planned. This is where I worry about the major issue.

My current solution to the issue of the crammed story is to obviously expand it. I still trying to be realistic about it and so this is the best new structure I could come up with:

1 Season = 3 Volumes, 1 Volume = 14 Chapters, 1 Chapter = 6,000 Words

Without adding too much work to a single volume, this is the structure that I’m planning on trialling. I did have to fight with myself over how 12 fits much more nicely with my 6 and 3 but I think it will be for the best … Maybe I could make it 15? 

This does mean that the chapters will be cut up into three parts for Wattpad, so creating the separate parts means the options to present it in looks like this:

1 Season = 3 Volumes = 42 Chapters = 126 Parts

126 Parts sounds like an overwhelming amount to have to shuffle through. Though, to be perfectly honest, I’ve never used Wattpad. I didn’t have a lot of access to the internet as a kid/teen and so was always reading from the library. By the time I went to university and having the internet was the norm, I was reading tonnes of manga instead.

If I split the volumes, there will be 42 Parts, which should be pretty easy to navigate and manage. I wasn’t prepared for how difficult—or rather time-consuming—it is to use Wattpad, so the smaller the collection, probably the easier for me.

So, what does this mean for me in September?

It means that I have 36,000 words to write for Volume 1. Which was/is scheduled for release October 1st.

The upload schedule structure was originally every Sunday from 4th October 2026. Each volume has a fortnight break before the next and each season has a 4 week break before the next.

With the size guide for Wattpad, I decided to upload Part 1 on Wednesdays and Part 2 on the Sunday, with the full chapter going up on my website on the Sunday as well. This means that my chapter publish timeline is still fairly the same.

Technically, I only need to start covering the missing words from the first 4 Chapters and so the task isn’t as daunting as I’ve made it for myself. I think this will be a great opportunity for me to continue moving forward rather than being discouraged and stopping a project.

Say Nope to the Trope is intended to be a completely polished publication. It’s an experiment to improve my writing in various aspects as well as get comfortable with sharing it. At the end of the day, once the project is over, I can always re-write it and publish the most polished version I can get it to. Having said that: I’m not half-arseing the writing. The first drafts are definitely waterfalls of the written word but I am working on cleaning up the splashing before they go live and especially after they go live.

The Writing Changelogs

My next issue is how to present the editing changelogs. Originally I was going to have all of the different versions posted on my website but my concern with that now is that they’ll get scraped by AI and it will have access to every stage. Having the current iterations posted on Wattpad and WordPress probably means that will already happen … but it’s still something I need to think on. I suppose, on the other side of the coin, having every changelog up at least proves that I’m a human writing them, right?

Rini & Butler has been written over the years 2020—2026 and so I’ve never worried about the witchhunt AI accusation (though, unfortunately that doesn’t mean anything to some people brandishing the torches) but now that I’m writing something completely new (though SNttT started in 2024), it’s something that weighs on my mind. I mean, aside from all the other detrimental issues that come with this era of AI.

Other than whether I post a list of the changes or the entire chapter to show the changes, I also need to consider how I display the changes. I’m thinking a summary will be more interesting as I doubt people will want to re-read the entire chapters, but a “tracked changes” type version could be interesting to show the development of the work, if not just for myself.

In Summary

This has been a long update (might end up splitting it up), but it has been good for me in terms of getting the issue out in words. Sometimes I find the best way for me to approach a problem is to start writing about it. I have a massive doc of dot points just sorting out the above structures and contemplating the issues I might face if I change it and if I don’t.

Right now, Say Nope to the Trope Volume 1 will start releasing on October 1st. I will be writing up a new publishing timeline and releasing that soon. From October, I will also be releasing the changelogs, which I also have to build a timeline for. Needless to say, I have a lot of writing and editing to do in this last week of September.