Progress Report (Patreon)

The sun has long set in my corner of the world, and night covers the sky like a warm blanket.

We meet once again, not under any shade but beneath the glint of a thousand stars. And how delayed this meeting is! I didn't post my progress report last week, and for that, I must apologize. To be absolutely honest, it was because I found myself at a loss for what exactly to report.

My work has been crazy, and amongst other obligations, my writing time shrunk to a third of what it usually is. What have I done last week? I wrote whenever time and inspiration allowed.

But what of this week? I did the same, but the key difference was that my free time went back to (almost) normal. And, with that, I managed to almost finish scene five of the chapter! Almost! I'm so close, I can taste it, but there's a set of choices that... have been giving problems 😅 I keep going back and forth on what to add, and when I do decide what, then it's a matter of how to present it. I need to get out of my head and go for it, but the last couple of hours was just me hitting a metaphorical wall.

I won't touch the scene Saturday and try to clear my head. In the meantime, I also finished all the extra content for Patreon — part 2 of the bed scenario grew so much! I just couldn't stop writing! But I'm very pleased with how they turned out. These kinds of writing exercises are invaluable to get me in the headspace of certain characters - especially characters I haven't had the chance to write much about.

Neia, for one, is just... slowly coming to be. I have, of course, a mold of who she is and what's her role in the story but having to write her in these scenarios and prompts is really helping me find her voice. The same can be said for the Pirate and Lance and Rafael. I know them, but the more I write them, the more I figure out how to present them to the reader.

Their mannerisms, the words they use, and how they move. I'm feeling more and more confident to write them in-game when the time comes - and, for some of them, the time is coming very soon.

And, in the meantime, I hope it's enjoyable to read it. 😋 Maybe some of their characterizations will change over time — all characters change the more we write them, the more the plot advances. Alessa and Hadrian are very far from who they were when I first wrote chapter one of book one. So very different. I know the same will happen with the others, but instead of trying to hide or divert attention from the chance, I think it's one of the beauties of creating. I evolve as a writer, so does the story and, ultimately, so do the characters.

The goal for next week? Get over this bump and finish scene five!

It rained last week, just like I asked the heavens for, but alas, it was short-lived. Still, it felt like a balm to my soul when I sat down at the desk, a cup of warm coffee beside me, a cat curled on my bed, and raindrops kissing the glass of my window.

Here's to what's to come. Have an amazing weekend! 🌹