Foreward

From the author, Included in the 2019 publication.

What you're reading is an experiment.

In January of 2018, as the publication of "The Hero's Tale", our fantasy role-playing game rule book (now available at TheHerosTale.com) became more and more of a possibility, even a reality, my sons and I got very excited abut storytelling and writing. So much so, that I decided to take some of the initial characters in our game's sample adventure, use its world as a

setting, and begin a fiction blog.

To me, the thought of writing a full novel had always been daunting and overwhelming. How would I ever find the time to write 50-60,000 words? However, I could easily commit to

writing two scenes a week. That's not much, right? I started by outlining about the first month of the story, then dove in.

It was a very different way of writing, and of publishing, a story. It required a different structure, a different flow, and a different work strategy.

Each blog post, a "scene", would be short. At first, I set those numbers at between 300 and 750 words as a guide. Later, I would adjust that target to between 500 and 900. I think that if you go too much longer, you won't capture a blog audience. If it's much shorter, you won't be able to do much in search, and the scenes just don't develop.

I would post two times a week.

Each scene would be written from an omniscient point of view, but focused on the perspective of a different one of the main characters.

Now, as the year comes to an end, I have completed the first two main story arcs. I have plans and outlined scenes well into the next one, and I don't foresee an end. I'm envisioning this as an

ongoing tale, with characters coming and going, like a soap opera or a serial comic, all set in the fictional fantasy world of the game, known as Wynne.

This is not a normal approach to writing a story. It doesn't allow a lot of room for revisions, and the structure is not like the common "Chapter in a Book" kind of flow.

Also, this book is a bit of documentation of my own growth in the 12 months I was writing it. A lot of the characters dealt with things I was dealing with, and my own writing (and illustration)

skills improved over the year. I offer that partly as an excuse, and partly as a way of sharing my own experiences.

...But, overall, I'm pleased with it so far. I hope after reading this, you'll continue to follow the story on the web (at theherostale.blogspot.com), and continue to follow the characters!

- Mark Hansen, December, 2018