Writing Update: 21-02-25

Change: +3630

Year to date: 35,313

I just finished reading Orbital, the 2024 Booker prize winner. I'd highly recommend it. It's a slim but dense read, beautiful prose, an elegy to our planet and the people living on it written along the orbital lines the astronauts trace in a single day. Normally, I'm more than a little pragmatic or utilitarian in my reading: as an amateur, what can I learn from reading this? In this case--nothing; I simply don't think I've got it in me to write a book in the style of Orbital. High concept, virtually no plot, deftly delineated characters and meticulously researched.

Frustratingly, this is the first writing week of 2025 in which I didn't meet my target. Disappointing, especially considering a strong start. Part of it was revising part five of the Christmas story for posting here, which took longer than expected and trimmed some wordage away. But mostly, real life got in the way, and I missed two full days of writing. When I did write, it went slower than usual. I don't think it's waning enthusiasm, but rather some difficulty in getting the plot points I want to line up plausibly. Like, I can't have this happen:

Mr Connor reaches for me, intending comfort. Involuntarily, I flinch back from his touch. “Sorry. It’s not you.”

            He nods towards the screen. “Bad memories?”

            The thought of physical contact with a man right now makes my skin crawl.

And then have them jump in bed a few lines later, playing out all those kinky fantasies they explored in the Valentine's sneak peek.

Bridging those two points requires some mental trickery to keep it credible, and its writing that kind of internal dialogue I often find most challenging.

In any case, hopefully I'll manage to catch up the writing shortfall in the coming week.

Meanwhile, the 'Christmas Story' approaches its conclusion. Before I can publish the whole thing, however, I'll need to go back and finish off Chapter 6 and make sure they align. There's some connective tissue that needs writing out, and once the main narrative reaches this point in the story, it'll probably need a light edit to keep it coherent.

Speaking of which, if you ever check in on Scribblehub you'll see that I've started reposting the entirity of Constant there by smaller, more digestible chapters. Basically, what would've once been 'scenes' within larger chapters are now chapters in themselves. This makes it a lot more accessible for readers, I think, especially in a digital medium read from small screens or in smaller chunks.

This does mean the numbering I'm using here does't make sense. For example, Chapter 6 isn't the sixth chapter anymore. Rather, it's chapters 30-35 of Book 4.

Posting in this way really highlights how my writing has changed. The earliest chapters of Constant are--short, like really short, anywhere between 500 to 1,500 words. It's a real contrast to current chapters that run on average about 5k. Is it better and more detailed writing, with a deeper appreciation of character and setting? Or just bloat?

Either way, when I find some time I'll clean up the Patreon to better reflect the current chapter structure, and make sure it's all properly accessible for members.

Next week:

Monday: Sneak Peek of current content

Wednesday: A Christmas Story, part 6

Have a great week!