Hello everyone,

Let me first assure you that I am, in fact, still writing The Grey Arbiter. Just very slowly. This is another point in the story where everything has to be just so, especially the dialogue. This means I'm getting out fewer than 1,000 words a day, but it should pick up once I'm out of the compositional woods, as it were. Let it be known that I now have immense respect for anyone who can write romance fiction well.

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Hello readers,

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Hello readers,

I don't want to appear as fickle, so with some degree of embarrassment, I admit that I don't have as much free time as I figured I would. I've some exams early-mid May, so a lot of my time is taken up studying for those. While I enjoy writing, I don't put horsewords before studies. This means progress is slow-ish, but steady. I'd guess 500 words per day is my current rate of writing.

With that, have a snippet to make up for last post's lack of content.

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Hello readers,

I apologise for the enormous hiatus with Grey Aribter. I've been busy with the last of this semester's assignments and stuff so I've had very little time for anything except work work work.

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Hello friends,

I recently hit a speedbump where writing Grey Arbiter is concerned. I am at the middle point in terms of plot, which means I'm at the point where the most shit is going on, and I'm having a little trouble tying it all together in a way that would make sense to a reader. Therefore, I apologise for what promises to be a fairly large gap between chapters 5 and 6.

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So about that new chapter. I apologise for it being half the length it normally is. It might've taken another week (at least) to get it up to 18,000 or so, which felt a little too long without an update.

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My workload is atrociously enormous at the moment, so work on chapter 5 has been slow. I've managed a rough average of 500 words per day, a quarter of what's normal for me.

What I usually do now is paste a little extract from the latest chapter, but instead I thought I'd tell you a different kind of story - the story of how I came to be writing horsewords.

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I think we're about half done with the whole thing! Saying it out loud now, it sounds mad, but I truly think we've either passed or are exactly on the halfway point.
It's funny, y'know, that when I started this story, I had literally no idea as to how it would end. It was a small cause for concern, actually, because I thought it might stay that way.

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About 10,500 into chapter 4. It's been taking a little more time than usual, the summation of experimenting with writing/revising techniques and uni work. Therefore, I thought I owed you another extract, whoever you are. You, yes, YOU! This is dedicated to you. 'Cause you're special, and you've gotta believe that.

The Apple sisters and Sweetie Belle returned to their drinks, but they were still listening. Rarity seemed to know this as well.
"Should we take a walk?" I asked.

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So I'm about 7,500 done with chapter 4. It's going to be more slice-of-life (ugh) oriented in comparison to the other chapters, which have healthy dollops of action and adventure in the mix. I know exactly when this chapter will end, so perhaps with a specific goal in mind, I might write faster. In the meantime, have a teaser. It's a mixture of dialogue and introspection.

"AJ, you there? Let's head!" I shouted at the upstairs windows.
Rainbow Dash covered her ears.

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It's been a while since my last post so I thought I'd do a little update.

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Chapter 3 is done in first draft (I said it would contain Applejack but it didn't in the end. The material controls me, not the other way around). I'm going to leave it for a couple of days, review it, then publish. It'll be out late on 11/02 (that's GMT 0, I'm a tea sucking limey if it wasn't obvious).

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For some confounding reason, I'm not writing as fast I usually do. I think it's because I'm at a particularly important point in the story that I really want to get right (i.e. it took me almost two hours to write 500 words). Here's some more to whet your appetites. No real spoilers ahead:

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Hi Grey Arbiter readers (by that I mean literally anyone),

I had a thought while I was in the midst of writing chapter 3. I'm coming across quite a few points in the narrative where I think it would be alright to start a new chapter.

What I mean is: I'm around 7,500 words into chapter 3, and I'm at a point where the scene changes enough to warrant starting a new chapter.

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Don't know if anyone bloody reads these, but there's something therapeutic about putting your thoughts on paper (or in a text box).

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Hi to everyone reading grey arbiter,

I hope you enjoyed it, or will enjoy it, or have come to enjoy it, or are currently in the process of enjoying it. If not, feel free to send me a strongly worded email or whatever saying why not. I'm no Andrew Dobson about criticism.

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