Writing Update: 14-03-25

Change: -1,528

Year to Date: 50,572

I completely failed to stay away from the keyboard this week. I wrote 2k at the start of the week, bringing the Christmas arc as far as I can without first returning to chapter 6. Then, I gave the Christmas arc a full edit, and trimmed just under 3k words from it. I'd hoped for more, to be honest. Following Stephen King's advice, I was aiming for a solid 10% cut and didn't quite get there. It'd be easy enough to achieve, I suppose: I could just cut one or two of the smuttier scenes, for example, there's a lot of them. But I suspect readers enjoy those scenes.

More to the point, they're supposed to build up an impression of a (mostly healthy) sensual, sexual escape, with each experience a step towards recovery from the past. It's also setting the protagonist up for what comes next, and establishes a contrast between Mr Connor and Tom.

So, I don't know, I'm reluctant to cut them. At some point, I'll probably give it another look over and see whether I can trim back another thousand or two words. I'm learning, very gradually, to kill my darlings, as they say.

Overall, though, I'd say I'm pretty pleased with how the arc has come out. I think some of my best writing to date is in there, though of course it's impossible to tell when I'm this close to the writing. I'm naming this arc Book Five: Sweet/Sentimental in my master document. Each 'book' of the novel is named after one of the old-school categories on FM. So, we've got: Book 1 (In Hiding), Book 2 (Workplace Situations), Book 3 (Stuck), Book 4 (Identity Death), Book 5 (Sweet/Sentimental) and finally, Book 6 (Revenge). I need to go into the Library section of the Patreon and update all that.

So what's next? I still need to take a break and catch up on overdue, real-world work stuff that pays the bills. But that's really boring. I also think I need a palate-cleanser from Constant before tackling the end of Book 4. I'm finding Darius a tricky character to get right. There's also some plotting stuff I need to work through, first.

So next week, I might focus on writing something simple and sweet, try to not overthink it and just push out a five-thousand word short story of some kind.

Next week: 

Monday: Book 5, Chapter 3 released for all members.

Wednesday: revised Book 6 released for Constant members and above.

Thursday: hopefully, a short story (sneak peek or completed, depending on how things go) for Patron members and above.

Have a great week!