Turns out I'm still a writing noob (Patreon)

TL;DR: The pacing for this sequence is a bit out of whack. I'm going to fix it before it gets published.

To be clear, I mean the plot pacing. Chapters will continue to come out on schedule while I complete book nine, but I may take a week in October to reorganise book nine before sending it to the publishers.


The current extensive war sequence is something new for me as a writer. In addition to being very long, it has a lot of moving parts, with characters in different places doing things at the same time.

Many of these chapters will depict events taking place at the same time as other chapters, which brings us to tomorrow's chapter. I'm sure what everyone is excited to see is the aftermath of Jason going ham with his aura. I'm excited to see it, and I'm writing the thing.

Unfortunately, I have sequenced these chapters quite poorly, and what we'll be getting for much of this week is other events leading up to that moment in other parts of the battle. I hope you enjoy what is in them - I know some people have been waiting for some of it for a while.

The reason is that because this is fairly new ground for me as a writer, the chapter revision rewrites are just taking longer than normal as the drafts go through significant changes. I'm happy with the results, but I'm sinking an exhausting amount of work into this. I am happy with how the chapters are turning out, though. There's satisfaction to be had in working hard and being proud of what that hard work accomplished.

The good news - for me, at least - is that I've just come off a very long break. I have the energy to spare, and while I am pushing myself, it's not to the point that I'm going to crap out. I'm just looking forward to the start of the next book and things calming down. A bit.

This pacing issue is something I intend to fix. When the time comes to send book 9 off for professional editing, I'm going to reorder the sequence so the pacing is much better. There will be a build up and a payoff, rather than a build up, a "hold on, I just need a quick week to explain what's gong on elsewhere," and then a payoff. I may take a week off to reorganise book 9 before I send it to the publisher, I'm not sure yet. That would probably be the start of October, if I do that. I'll see how much work it's going to take when I'm done.

I'm sorry that this won't be the best reading experience. It should be pretty good, but this is one of those times when when being a patron really does mean seeing bits of how the sausage is made. because I can't say it enough, thank you all for being part of this journey with me.