Silence (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

First of all, I'd like to apologize for how quiet I've been. This whole Easter week is a holiday in Portugal — and, I think, most Christian countries?🤔

Why am I saying this incredibly obvious and boring fact? Because while I'm having time off work, so are most of my family. I've had a very unexpected (but welcome) visit from a couple of them and since last Friday, I've been swamped with family gatherings. Honestly, I really needed this, but it does translate to less time for writing.

Which isn't to say I haven't been writing! I didn't write a progress report on Friday because I wanted to get to my goal place before writing it  — when Lance first appears. I thought I'd get to that part on Monday, but I ended up writing an extra set of choices (very fun choices tho), so only now did I get to our charming bard.

The first draft is going amazing!!!! Writing "free-style" as I call it — not worried about sentence structure or flow or even coherency — it's so, so fun. This draft is meant to get the words and ideas, the abstract thoughts and images about scenes and characters and conversations, out of my head and put them on paper - sometimes I write so frantically that I have trouble understanding my handwriting. Other times, I spend ten minutes in a sentence, because there's a new character entering the ring, and I have to figure out what kind of first impression I want the reader to have of them.

It's a pure, creative outburst, not meant to be seen by no other eyes than mine, so it can be as rough and dirty as I need it to be. It serves as the backbone for the second draft, where I carve away the rock and dirt to uncover the gem underneath.

And the outburst has been going very well. The more I write, the more excited for the story I become! 😄 It's also nice to leave a few breadcrumbs and little clues for what will come to transpire...

I'll set a new goal in the Progress Report this Friday, but for now, the goal is to keep shortening my pencil as I fill the pages of my notebook.

So, while delayed, I reached my goal! I'm sorry, again, for the silence. Normal posting will resume tomorrow with the first of the Bonus Content for this month and will continue henceforward. I'm still fairly busy with family obligations until Sunday, but, like this morning, I'm carving little time slots to write.

I hope the week has been going great! It's been a good year so far for Interaction Fiction, and on Thursday, a titan will awaken from its slumber. I wonder how many shockwaves it'll create? In any case, I can't wait for it. ❤

I know I keep using this sentence, but I love it so very much. And I do mean it: May the road rise up to meet you. 🌹