Writing Update: 07/02/25

Change: +7,969

Year to Date: 31,345

Another good week for reading, sticking to or surpassing my current daily target. Long may it continue!

The Christmas Story concludes next week. It took a bit of an unexpected twist in today's writing, and I'm excited to see where it ends up, now. I had it all planned out, but these moments when one of the characters suddenly take charge are always fun to explore. There hasn't been a lot of feedback or comments on it, and I'm curious what people think of it--there's a significant shift in tone, and it's hard to gage how well the softer, more romantic stuff connects for the reader.

Meanwhile, here's a reply I wrote to a comment on the FM hyperboard about writing longer, multi-part stories. The original posting was questioning the value of longer, multi-part stories:

I'd say every point you raise is valid. There's certainly less uptake on later parts of a long story. And I totally get why - it's a big ask on the reader to stick with longer works, or for a new readers to pick something up around chapter 24 or something. And there's the risk in picking up a long, unfinished story because who knows if the author will every complete it. (Looking at you, R.R. Martin.) Though the phrasing is odd - do we consider published novel a "multi-part story" because it's a long work divided into chapters?

So why do it? Well--to finish the story, I guess. I'm creeping up on 500k words at this stage of my own multi-part story. I can see the ending in sight and reckon I'll have it done in a few more months. Why have I stuck with it? For the readers who've stayed with it this long, I guess.

But also because the story never let me go, even when I dropped it for a decade. And it's not like I'm writing some great piece of art here. It's amateur gender-bender sci-fi with healthy doses of occasional kinky smut. But--I enjoy it, I enjoy the writing of it, and can't wait to reveal the rest of it to the readers that stick with it to the end. I like (some of) the characters, and whilst I can't promise them a -happy- ending, they certainly deserve -an- ending, at this point.

And finally, I guess I've stuck with it because I first started it to get better at writing, and to the extent it's possible to tell when it's your own work, I think I have. Especially in some of the more recent chapters where, it seems to fair to say, fewer readers are likely to see it because it's buried 400k words deep in a very long novel. And once it's all done, I can say I finished a long piece of writing for the first time in my life. Then, I get the experience of editing--really, properly editing--and paring down a novel-length piece of writing for the first time. I wouldn't get that experience without finishing the damn thing.

So, I guess it doesn't feel like diminishing returns to me. As an amateur writer, I'm getting more than ever out of sticking with the longer piece."

As an income source--uh, probably not.

Which is to say: thank you, all of you supporting me on here. I've said it before, but it bears repeating: without you, I suspect the story would've died long ago Thank for helping me see it through to its conclusion. (A conclusion is rapidly approaching.)