Now 30,000 words written on C&C... · 4:25pm Dec 8th, 2023
And as a result, the originally planned climactic chapter is going to have to be broken into thirds to keep the chapter size manageable. But for all that, I still don’t quite have a finished chapter pulled together, whether part 1, 2 or 3, though part 1 is close and should hopefully be off to prereaders this evening. The main issue is that I’ve got lots of individual sections and scenes written, but piecing them together and making the progression and escalation of events make sense is giving me more trouble than usual.
My mental process for writing this thing has been unusually jumbled due to its complexity, but it goes something like:
“I-want-to-include-this-but-it-shouldn’t-go-here-and-this-might-be-out-of-character-and-this-occurs-too-soon-and-that-results-in-a-plot-hole-but-what-if-I-do-this-but-then-I-have-to-change-this-and-how-do-I-juggle-this-character-development-and-where’s-the-best-place-to-include-this-piece-of-lore-and-what-if-this-whole-thing-is-a-mistake-and...”
Well, you get the idea. Prereaders, please don’t hold back on this one, because any issues have to be spotted and fixed.
This mini-arc is called the “Queen’s Gambit,” which is simply the name of a chess opening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen's_Gambit. I could very easily turn it into an Eros arc and part of me is still tempted to do so rather than put it in the main story. The mental roadblock I run into is that the lore I’m including is something readers would need to know. There’s also a lot of nuggets of information about various characters as well, from the two Archons to the backstory of Obsidian Ire, who has a surprising history with the Kingdom.
I also say again that these three upcoming chapters will be something of a reference and homage to the griffon arc of Midnight Rising, which I will have to post another mea culpa on shortly, as it turns out I fucked up on the last chapter I posted for a second time. *sigh* But one thing you’ll learn about me if you haven’t already is that I’m very stubborn in the sense that if I don’t get something right the first time, I’m perfectly willing to rewrite it.
The biggest example of me badly blowing a chapter can be found in Five Star Service, where my first attempt at The Attorney chapters late in the story were a total fail that just about ruined it. But I got them right on the second try simply by not thinking with my lower head instead of the upper. Hopefully it’ll be the same for Midnight Rising when I go back to it.
I’ll talk about that more later. As for this story, I’m still going to do my best to get all three chapters out by Christmas, and am considering saving them to release in rapid succession in the leadup to Christmas as a gift for readers. Whether I do or not depends on the feedback I get on the first chapter going to prereaders. So stand by, gang. The first 13,000 words are coming.
Very relatable, but 30k words? Blood Tarterus...
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That what I have to proofread in multible stories and you made it in one chapter?
Mad respect