What We Talk About When We Talk About Writing - A Small Update · 1:25am April 18th

(At this point, maybe every blog will have a title referencing some literary work, for funsies)

Hi, everyone! I thought I'd drop by with a quick update as to what I've been working on. Nothing too fancy - I'm not good at making a blog look like that - but I figure this might interest some of you.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I've been working on two things primarily. That... is no longer the case - not because I've stopped, but because the one short story has ended up being split into two completely different stories. This second one, incidentally, has reached the end of its first draft, so I'll be trying to move into the second draft in the coming days.

No idea when it'll be finished. My process tends to be four drafts of editing before I even start considering getting editors and pre-readers, and even longer before I consider if the piece is ready to be published - but it would be nice to have something out, regardless.

The first story is still being worked on. At this point it's become the length of a novella, though. Go figure - I try to write something small, then find out there's a lot more that needs to be said, and it turns into several chapters. I have a clear end in mind, but that's just for the first draft - editing will surely change much of it, as has been the case with some of my previous stories.

As for the novel, well - it progresses. Slowly, yet surely. After a month of steadily trying to put in the words, I've written a total of 43,975 words, and just a little over seven chapters.

And that's just for Part One.

I'm, admittedly, doing a bit of an odd thing with this one. I have a vague outline plotted out, but only have Part One really planned down to the finer details (as "fine" as I can get, given the nature of my writing process and how much of it really is "discovery" over "planning"). These seven chapters constitute just over half of what I plan for Part One, so I'm nowhere near done just yet.

I'm not sure how many parts this story will have, but from my impression of it, three seems a safe number. It may change, of course, as I keep at it.

But it's still exciting all the same! I won't lie and say it's been easy - because it's never smooth-sailing all the time - but this being a first draft and all, I feel a little "looser," more relaxed. I guess having to write scripts on pretty strict deadlines and on a steady basis has made it so that I can write this to my leisure without feeling stressed about it.

So, yeah! I guess things on the writing end have been going about as smooth as one could have hoped for. I won't make any promises or estimations about when things will be ready to be read - let's be honest, they probably won't be for a while - but I'm enjoying the work all the same, and I reflect on how important that is; if you're enjoying the work you're doing, it's not as bad.

I might have something a bit more "professional" and less "casual" in the future - but for now, I hope you enjoyed this mini update.