Personal- Apologies for the late stories (Patreon)

Like I mention in the Home Cooked Meal post I wound up being very busy this month with my brother moving in with me, but that's only part of why stories are late. Many of you are fans of my series It Runs in the Family and frustrated it's been so long since the last chapter, which is why I made it a priority to break that writers block and get the next chapter done. Which I actually managed to do! I wrote a rough draft for Chapter 51 and even got halfway through the next one. So this whole month I've been helping my brother move, knowing I had one story ready to go as soon as it was edited.

But I spent hours editing and rewriting on that chapter before I finally had to admit that it just isn't working. The setup is weak and the characters and situation are really forced. Honestly the frustration of trying to get that chapter to work is part of why it's been so many months with it hanging over my head. So as I was busy moving furniture I suddenly went from having one story done and working on this batch of shorts to having nothing finished and nothing to post. I'm sorry it took so long to get the stories out but it really threw me for a loop having a chapter that just isn't good and I can't salvage. I've always been able to pivot or find some way to make a chapter work, so I'm not used to experiencing a failure like that.

The good news is that what would have been the following chapter is going well, and there's really nothing lost from simply going right to that chapter instead. Which is part of why my current attempts at chapter 51 just wasn't good. So I'll be working on getting a last story done for April this week, and hopefully there'll be a new IRF chapter for May, where I'll try to keep it ongoing to get this current arc finished for the rest of the year. I suppose if anyone is interested in seeing the chapter that doesn't work I could post it, but I couldn't in good conscience post a story I don't have faith in just for the sake of hitting my monthly word goal. I wouldn't do that to all of you who support me so much.

April has been a frustrating and busy month to say the least, but I've got to accept failure as it comes and move on from there. I've also got a trip out of state coming up next month for a cousin's wedding, so hopefully I can enjoy a few days to relax and recharge while I'm on the road. I'll do my best to have the last 5k words for this month out by the end of the week, and hopefully get some good stuff for all of you going next month. Hope you're all doing well and I apologize again that it's so late in the month for me to say something and get stories out.