February 2019 Mid-Month Writing Progress Update

Howdy, folks!

So last blog I asked how y’all would feel about the occasional writing update blogs, and the one response on the subject that I got was positive, so here we are. I’m going to play these things by ear a little, but my general plan is to try and have some sort of blog update once a month or so. Most of the time, hopefully, that’ll be at the same time as I put up a new story. That’s a natural time to talk about my recent writing news and any plans for what’s next that I’ve got.

But as I’ve been talking about on the last couple of blogs, I’m not quite writing at a pace where once a month is really all that doable for new story releases here, considering my other writing obligations and things. So, on stretches like this one where I’m not having anything come out for a while, rather than just going silent, I’ll be posting little update blogs for how things are going. And since I already have a more-time-consuming-than-normal blog obligation around the start of the month for Fumbling Toward Fluent, my blog about language learning (yes, I’m probably going to keep linking that, no, I don’t expect anyone to read it ), I figured that aiming for middle of the month would be easier for me to work around. This is all subject to change based on how things go, and my own mercurial whims.

Anyway, so I said last blog that I was planning on writing about 10k words worth for the original fiction novel that’s been plaguing me for the last four years before switching back to a pony project, and that if things went according to plan, I’d be making that switch-over at the end of January/beginning of February. And, despite all odds, I actually managed to follow that plan. Well…sort of.

See, I made a mistake in my planning when I said that I wanted to write 10k words, due to thinking about things wrong. At the time I wrote the blog, I was knee-deep in writing some chapters from scratch to fill in some holes that got punched in the novel during the heavy edits it needed, so my brain was in “add words” mode. But, after adding those words in the couple of new chapters the story needed, the next step was editing the rest of what I had written to match up with the new structure. Which was time-consuming and important work to get done, but doesn’t exactly translate into a “word count” I could keep track of that was all that accurate.

There was a lot of new writing, but also a lot of cutting, so I often ended up with a word count difference of a couple hundred words in either direction from what I had at the start, and I wasn’t gonna try and go back and count what was new after the fact, y’know? At the end of the day, I ended up recording around 7k new words written for the novel, but with a number of days where I did a heavy amount of editing work, which got me through the cleanup process on the novel on January 30^th. I’d call that a victory if ever there was one.

After finishing that off, I ended up taking a break for a day before switching gears into ponywords again, which is sort of a troubling sign to me. I seem to have a bit of friction when switching back and forth. Last time it happened was right after finishing Basil Bones, and at the time it seemed perfectly reasonable: I’d just finished a big project, and starting in on the OF novel meant getting myself back up to speed with something that had been left mid-implosion, so it felt fair that I needed a few days to recharge my batteries and get into the swing of things. In contrast, hitting a good stopping point and jumping into a new story that I was excited to write and had carefully outlined should have been a smooth transition to make, and I still ended up missing a day. It’s a little early to make any definitive judgments about things yet, but if on the next switch I end up needing a break, I’d think that means it’s gone from a couple of events and turned into a pattern.

This probably sounds like I’m making a big deal out of nothing, with what amounts to missing three or four days of writing total from two project switches, but I’m trying to be mindful of what does and doesn’t work for me in the long-run. There’s always the opportunity to change things with how I work for the better, provided I’m keeping track of how it’s going. The thing I’m keeping in mind here is that while I seem to have some friction between writing projects in 2-3 week intervals, I’ve been going for several months now where I’ve ended up devoting two-ish days a week to writing blog posts. I haven’t had any problems writing fiction Tuesday through Friday, switching to blog writing and Saturday, going back to fiction on Sunday, and finishing the blog on Monday. If it was just changing my headspace for what I’m writing on a given day, that schedule should be destroying me.

Maybe it makes sense for me to be writing week on/week off between projects, without any regard to trying to finish a story or meet a specific goal. Maybe it makes sense switching off day to day. Both of those options will net the same thing in the long-run, everything will get written in the “same amount of time” as it’s written now from an outside perspective looking in. It doesn’t matter to you guys if a story that took two weeks to write comes out in four weeks because I spent the first two weeks writing something else, or because those two weeks got stretched out into four weeks interwoven with a different story. On the other hand, maybe that difference would matter to me, I could easily picture getting frustrated over something that should take two weeks to write getting dragged out to a month thanks to the constant switching back and forth. I dunno, just something I’ve got to consider. Gotta weigh my options.

Regardless, after my day break, I got to work on the new horsefiction right at the start of February. This is that RariDash one-shot I described briefly last blog, a teen-rated romance story. I’ve stayed mostly on target since then, though I ended up missing a day thanks to the Super Bowl (which was a mistake, I would have much rather gotten a day of writing in than have watched that shitshow of a game. If only I knew…). I’ve currently written 8,261 words for it. That doesn’t include today’s writing, which I haven’t done yet. I said I was expecting it to be 5-10k words before I started, with a warning/reminder that I have no idea what I’m talking about when I guess how long something’s going to be. This far into it, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be right around/just slightly over 10k words total, maybe creeping up to 12k? I’d be very surprised if it hit 15k words.

Of course, I said this in a Discord channel, and JetstreamGW said, “So 20k words then?”

*cough*

I’m expecting to finish up the draft on it in the next week, unless the length really does get away from me. After that, it’ll need the usual stuff, like edits from me, edits from others, me putting together some cover art for it, etc. All of that shouldn’t take a tremendously long time, maybe another week or two, and then it’ll be ready to go online. No promises on this, especially since the story very well could grow some legs and run away from me into a 20k+ novella or something, but I’m expecting to have it finished up and going online end of February/start of March.

While that prepping-for-publication stuff is going on, I’ll also be switching back to the original fiction novel for a while. After finishing up all the fixes for it during the last writing session, I’m feeling good about it, even if after all that work the draft’s word-count is about a thousand words shorter than it was before the edits and rewrites. I’m still estimating the total length of the novel to be about 70k words, which, well, that estimation and a bus ticket will get you the ride on the bus, but the point is I’ll be going back to it with no intention of finishing it this time. I’ll be going for the same thing I went for last time, more or less: 10k words of new writing rounded to the closest chapter break. It should actually be ~10k words this time, as it’s all new writing from this point on, and ought to take two weeks and change to finish.

Considering the timeline on this, provided there isn’t a huge hiccup with switching back into it, that means I should be finishing up that chunk of original fiction writing and moving onto pony again within a week or so of this RariDash story going online. Depends on how long it takes to get all the edits and things squared away, and I’ll probably be sacrificing a day’s worth of writing or two to make the cover art. If all goes to plan, it should be a case just like when Basil Bones finished up, where I’m not yet back to writing words of the small ungulate, but almost there.

As for what the next pony project will be, well, I haven’t decided yet. I have a stack of things I’d like to write, but the top of that stack is shared by a couple of choices, rather than a clear winner like when I went to finish Basil Bones. This RariDash story won out from the pile most recently because I kinda promised Formerly Committed that I wouldn’t ask him to edit anything with Applejack in it next, and RariDash seemed like a good fit for that. Best not to ask about that promise. What’s currently floating around at the top of the stack in my interest, in no particular order, is a choice of:

1) The third and final part of the Heat Trilogy, the silly continuity of mature-rated stories (Heat of the Moment and Finding Her Smile being the first two), following the aftermath of a wedding. This would be M-rated RariJack, probably in the 10-20k words range.
2) A one-shot sequel story set in the Room for One More continuity about the three of them adjusting to living together. This would be T-rated AppleDashLight, probably in the 5-10k words range.
3) A Season One AU adventure story that diverges from the canon timeline during Twilight’s first Winter Wrap Up in Ponyville. This would be a T-rated TwiJack adventure novel, probably in the 50-100k words range.
4) A one-shot romance story about an obscure bit of unicorn magic that interrupts a first date and makes it awkward. This would be a T-rated TwiJack, probably in the 5-10k words range.

There are others, many others, but those are the top of the “I’ve really been meaning to get around to these ideas!” list, with the most vested interest from me to get them written. They all have downsides to them, too, which is why there isn’t a clear winner. I’m not sure I’ve really been in the mood for writing M-rated lately, so the first option is iffy for that reason. Conversely, while going back to the Room for One More continuity would mean writing something T-rated (this time), I feel that writing a T-rated sequel story to a heavily M-rated novel fic is a good way to say, “Hey, you know who this story’s for? Nobody, that’s who!” and while I’ve said before that I’m happy writing fics that I want to write even if they’re not going to make a big splash on the site, I’m not exactly beating down the door to write something that’s probably feature box antimatter.

The AU adventure story is something I’m really excited for, but it’s also a novel, and would end up being rather long. You may recall that things didn’t go so well with update schedules last time I wrote a long fic. I don’t think there’d be a repeat of that or anything, but I’m reluctant to start a project that big, especially while I’m still finishing the original fiction novel. Despite my interest in the story, it’s probably the least likely to be next, if I’m picking. The one-shot TwiJack one would then be the shoe-in for stories to write, except that the outline for it is unfinished. It’s an idea I really like, but I haven’t developed the story I’d want to tell from the idea all the way. It could probably be fleshed out quickly, but the others are all ready to go right now.

I’m not going to end up picking one until it’s time for me to start writing pone again, so my whims are subject to change and I might end up settling on a clear winner (or a different story entirely! My brain is obnoxious like that), but if any of you folks saw that list of choices and went, “Ooh, I definitely want to read that!” please tell me, that might make it easier for me to choose. No promises that I actually will pick the “winner” based on expressed interest, but it probably will swing my excitement level at least a little bit. And truth be told, these four are likely the next four stories that I end up writing, it’s just a question of what order they get written in. Still, input would be appreciated.

Anyway, I’ve rambled at length for long enough now. I’m gonna go and try and get this RariDash story finished. Until that comes out, TTFN.

Comments

[JetstreamGW]

Callin’ it noooow.

[JetstreamGW]

Oh, right. The story ideas.

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That is the order of "how much I would like to see that thing."