Writer's Blog: Revisions and Dead Parents (More Connected Than You Think!) (Patreon)

I’m in Washington for the week visiting my mother (and, more importantly, my mother’s dog!), but should have the remaining three date scenes (Glitch, Kenzie, and Rosy) for Chapter 12 finished and uploaded on August 19th, which is the day after I get back to my desktop in Chicago. My desktop doesn’t freeze then overheat whenever I run Choicescript IDE to bug-hunt. Sally’s platonic pathway will be up on the 20th, as will alternate scenes in Chapter 10 that let Button stay at home instead of going back with Kenzie (which, after much hmming and hawwing and head-banging-on-wall-ing, I decided to add).

Chapter 13 will still be uploaded August 28th as planned. It involves a midnight visitor . . . and a basement.

Despite my best attempt to quickly push them out, I’m still working on the date scenes for Glitch, Rosy, and Kenzie. These scenes are harder because they do deep dives into their backstory. Unlike Sally and Gray, Glitch and Kenzie don’t fully understand what mind blindness entails for Button or how Nick hanging about work. Button gets a chance to talk about what their Zero, as well as how Nick’s intrusion and disappearance has impacted them, all while doing activities that are actually semi plot relevant. Or at least as plot-relevant as Sally’s walk and Gray’s ride.

In return, Glitch and Kenzie share their own histories with losing people and how they feel about Ments. Both their scenes feature the kind of painfully honest conversation that you need to have to fully fall in love with someone . . . or to choose whether to end things. Like the intervention and terrorist backstories, these scenes are heavier and thus take a bit more finesse to not completely bungle.

The updated date scenes were gut-wrenching to write, but in a good way. After Chapter 12, I feel like Button will finally know Glitch and Kenzie (depending on whom they’re dating). Initially platonic routes were written up for each date as well, but I cut this back to two platonic choices (Sally or Rosy) in order to keep things semi-contained (as which date you went on will be remembered). Sally, because she’s the default best friend. And Rosy, because their scene remains at Aeon and thus gives readers the most background lore on how Unity is structured. Glitch also features in Rosy’s scene, since they basically serve as Rosy’s unofficial T.A. as in excuse to skip their own classes.

Why are these date scenes taking so long to be released? Well, the first versions of the Chapter 12 dates that I typed up were fun, and I may turn those drafts into short stories for Patreon. But there’s been a lot of revisions. Location-wise alone: Glitch’s scene went from an amusement park to a bookstore to a hospital to a bookstore inside a hospital, Kenzie’s went from a dog park to a graveyard and then back to a dog park, and Rosy’s scene . . . well, let’s just say that I got choked up writing Rosy’s scene, even if it didn't change locales, and that hasn’t happened since the hospital segment in Chapter 4.

I want to do it right not only to do justice to every character's backstory, but aslo because the scenes are HUGE moments in their romance routes. Granted, Rosy’s “date” is bit of an outlier compared to Kenzie’s and Glitch’s, as it involves arguing with Adsila instead of smooching, but it’s equally significant in that Rosy begins to open up to Button for the very first time.

And speaking of Kenzie and Glitch (and also Rosy and possibly Sally if her adoption records were unsealed), I realized today that over half the main characters belong to The Dead Parent Society. While Rosy and Sally have pretty different backstories, Glitch and Kenzie lost their respective parents at around the same age—which is one of the reasons that the two bonded (morbid, but it happens). Glitch just got luckier when it came to their surviving progenitor. To be honest, I sort of feel like I should apologize to Kenzie for sticking them with Tobias as a father.

But you can’t choose your relatives. You can choose your family.

And sometimes, if you’re very sneaky and bring a large suitcase, you can steal your family’s dog.

(Ziva climbed inside voluntarily, which I've decided to mean she wants to return with me to Chicago. Although I would've folded my laundry for a better photo had she given me warning.)