Writing Update: 18/09/24
Added 2024-10-18 07:01:22 +0000 UTCStart of week: 21,918
End of week: 26,638
Change: +4,730
Year to Date: 182,463
Some good writing this week, with a minor breathrough in writing scene 5-5 ('The Death of David Saunders'). This is the finale of Julia's revenge and it's been a difficult one to get right. It's been long planned. To be honest, it should have happened a few chapters ago. I suppose it's somewhat a failure of plotting on my part that nearly an entire novel's length of writing has taken place across the "funeral" story arc. Would the story suffer if I trimmed out entire sections from previous chapters - excised the two scenes at Noir, for instance, or the Halloween office party, or the scene in Michael's office? It's hard to judge--I quite like those scenes!--and that's still part of my learning curve as a writer. It'll be interesting to see how the final version turns out, once I've given everything a final edit.
That final edit is a daunting task, mind. It looks as though Constant's going to hit about 500k words in length. That's.... insane. More might sometimes be more, but my 'little' story of a bad man forcibly transformed into a secretary is going to end up being longer than War and Peace. If I'd known this from the get go, I might never have started!
On the other hand... so long as people are still enjoying the story, I must be getting something right, right? In any case, I'm still enjoying writing it, though I 'm also anxious to bringing it to its conclusion. I've had specific scenes I've been looking forward to writing for about fifteen years now. I look forward to finally getting these on the page, and sharing.
I've also started thinking about the final structure of the story - books and parts and chapters and so on - but I'll save that for another update.
Week ahead:
Monday: sneak peek, for all members - from current scene 5-5 ('The Death of David Saunders')
Wednesday: scene 5-3 released for 'Constant' tier and above
Thursday: more fanart by Fraylim
Friday: the next update
Have a great week, everyone. And as always, feel free to comment or give feedback.
Comments
I think you're right in identifying two versions of the story. As a testbed for writing, improving my craft, responding to readers and exploring ideas, there's the version of the story that currently exists (and some older versions still kicking around old corners of the tg internet). But as a final test, taking on the challenge of cutting it back to something slimmer is something I should really take on. Though it begs the question - is that what readers of the genre want? There's a lot of content that I don't think would make the cut in professional writing: the many descriptions of clothes, for instance. Or some of the more detailed etotic scenes. But would cutting those disappoint the readership? In any case, it's a challenge I look forward to - in part because it means I've finished the full first draft! But also because it's clearly a key skill for a writer, and one I definitely need to practice.
David Sanders
2024-10-22 10:01:37 +0000 UTCIt's a tricky one really. I'd say that once Constant is complete you'd probably want to drastically edit it down to be a more concise story if you were looking to publish. But as it stands now it really suits the patreon model of regular serialised content. There's certainly a lot of the story that could be trimmed away in the end but again while it's entertainment for your readers it's also valuable live writing for you with fairly reliable feedback. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there are two Constants here with with two separate and sometimes even diametrically opposed goals to them. Constant as a finalised book and Constant as a dynamic growing entity both have differing needs and outcomes. Once you get to 'The End' there will be another mammoth task ahead of you shaping it into a book to go out into the world and perhaps alongside that, you can start your next project(s) to become the weekly soap opera for your patreons.
Julia
2024-10-18 19:31:52 +0000 UTC
