Writing Update: 24/05/24 (Patreon)

Start of week: 8,525

End of week:15,999

Change: +8,729

Year to date: 91,953

Word count this week again hides some edits to previous chapters triggered by scenes currently being written. It's been a good week for writing, mostly. The chapter's progressing well--maybe a little too well, as at this rate the entirely of chapter 3 is going to become "Julia's story". I suspect some serious trimming will be needed before it's done.

On the one hand, I'm really pleased with some aspects of the chapter. It's filling out her character, adding hints of backstory as well as touching on her current life. The shopping trip and her work project there is a crucial plot-point for later in the story, whilst adding to the sci-fi worldbuilding. I'm trying to balance Julia's cruelty against her justification for doing what she's doing, and hopefully generate some sympathy for her along the way, especially as her efforts at hurting David are equally self-destructive for her.

On the other hand, too much of the chapter is focused on David, in a way. It's "Julia's Story" but he's the one telling it, so at some point she's got to claim her own voice and tell her story from her point of view.

Meanwhile, I'm finally settling into something a little more consistent in terms of posting: a 500-1000 word extract on Mondays, for all paid members, from the current chapter as evidence beyond a word count that progress is being made. A second 'sneak peek' on a Wednesday, for higher-tier members, of Constant or something else being worked on. And the writing update on a Friday--these also go public after a few weeks.

Hopefully, that all seems like fair value for money? Any suggestions, or other things you'd like to see - Polls, more rambling mini-essays, other? With that in mind, I've gone and created a new supporter tier--"Constant Companion" for everything Constant related. I'll try and edit the current tiers to clarify the specifics of what they offer next. I'm also looking at cleaning up old posts, deleting a bunch of them to create a respository of the story-to-date, something easier to navigate, properly formatted and easily accessible, that's also up-to-date with the most recent edits.