Blog #5: Solstice Writing Pt. 2
Recap of the last three days.
Sunday--my new designated non-writing work day. I did indeed fill hours of it with meetings and other things that surprisingly come up on days like these. I was only ‘free’ for the last four hours of wakefulness and debated working, but I felt like it’d just be work I’d need to rewrite for quality anyways.
Monday--Pretty productive. I hit 16,000 words, and I felt like I had all the elements I needed to in order to write the 2nd chapter of the Solstice.
Tuesday--Today was not as ideal. I had to waste 50 minutes of my morning on other tasks, and I’m feeling the sharpness I get from the best rest, mental energy, and other factors it’s hard to control slipping. I also think it’s the complexity of the chapter. Still, I got through my notes and reshuffled scenes around.
Conclusion: It’s ‘done’. The second chapter of the Solstice lies at just over 30,000 words. With that said, I am believing my decision to delay was correct. I now take Sundays off, but that means ordinarily I have TWO days to write a chapter.
One to write, one to edit. Ideally I write shorter chapters but in this case, I just wrote for two days with no revisions. I will write the 3rd Chapter on Thursday, Friday, edit on Saturday, and perhaps post the 1st Chapter of the Solstice on Saturday-Sunday.
This allows me to edit all three chapters I’ll hopefully have in tandem…and I believe there will be some shuffling around of scenes and adding a lot more details and nuance. I don’t know if they’re lower quality than I want; reactions are mixed.
Having a live audience while I write is a good thing, sometimes, for motivation and understanding if a scene is hitting the emotional levels I want or building anticipation, but the readers cannot see ahead, nor do they read it at the pace of a regular reader. It may be that I will stop stream-writing because the reactions no longer help me.
They were mixed, this chapter, I think, so we will find out if that’s systemic to the chapter or the method and pacing and lack of edits for them. Either way--I am on-track and will take Wednesday off as usual before heading into it Thursday. Releasing Saturday/Sunday remains the plan but we shall see.
I worry, mostly, that my concentration will wane after this, because I have already written 65,000 words in about six days. Having days off to recharge helps but near the end of the Solstice I may flag.
There’s also what I cannot control, which is writing scenes that are excellent and amazing because the moment requires it. I worry…but I will continue to do my best. Optimism? …This chapter muddying narratively aside, I am writing without collapsing. Time will tell if this is too grandiose or confusing or has too many twists or turns, but we’re in it. I’ll update you on Saturday. Thanks for waiting.
--pirateaba
PS. Do not comment any spoilers about the streams here or anywhere else. I am removing them if I see them. I will begin banning people if they do it anywhere, be it Reddit, Discord, or the site.
Comments (29)
Hi pirateaba, I have been watching the effort and all the hard work, looking for ward to seeing the final results of your effort and hard work. Thanks for all you do.
just had a stray kitten wander up can someone remind me what numbtounges cat’s name is?
Reagen
Have you considered some kind of hybrid approach between having the the tight feedback loop of a stream and presumably no edits due to feedback? Like releasing drafts that get commented on and possibly edited, so like a stream but with a longer buffer (time scale of days or longer, instead of seconds to hours)? But then, what good is feedback anyhow? Other than factual errors and the like, it's subjective and opinions will differ wildly, and it's not clear what amounts to a compromise of authorial vision.
Nice, can't wait!
I don't watch streams in general, nor for this. I think a bit of distance between the magic (work) that goes into the writing, and myself as a member of the audience helps.
I like streams. Not a big discord user so it’s fun to see how people are reacting live.
TWI is like a giant tree with a massive number of branches and fruit but with a very small root system, lots of branches has to drop the fruit or not grow the fruit to maturity from lack of nurturing, don't rush the story let it grow slower so all fruit has a chance to mature, I think we all understand that volume doesn't=book, and it will let you decide where to end a book better than just cut it in half.
To continue the metaphor- the growing season is only so long. Fruit can’t wait to mature or it will wither on the vine. I’m looking at my own garden that failed to produce anything this season…
I've been rereading from the beginning. Where TF is Zelkyr? Wouldn't have Erin seen his Ghost?
The ghosts said that Wistram was cleared out pretty early so he may have been eaten early. Or he was in the special hell. . .
Anyone else REALLY hoping that Toren shows up to save the day? Maybe with a voicebox spell attached to his skeleton!
Wasn't that the plan, him being able to talk a while back? or is my memory just bad.. what's her face told what's his face to fix Toren so he could talk.
I would rather you take some extra days to edit/revise the chapters then release them. :)
Survey was challenging - how can any of us have just one favorite TWI character? Or one favorite place to go - oh wait… I forgot we have Erin’s door 😆
Love you, Pirate. Keep up the great work. 🎉
Take as much extra time as you need to feel comfortable with things. At least until you're sensing you're hitting serious diminishing returns in terms of effort to quality, you know? I temporarily boosted subscription tier for the month. Take care of yourself! Get a nice lunch or something please 🙏 ❤️
For me Patreon is a way to peek behind the screens a bit. See a little bit rawer more current work than what I could normally get. I appreciate both those aspects and love seeing a new chapter pop up but I feel like alot of authors are pushing out chapters they don't like because it's expected. My favorite authors are saying no I need a break sometimes. And when they come back they are putting out superior work. Don't rush your craft too much, but also write as much as possible because I'm waiting to read it lol
Meanwhile, it is NaNoWriMo and my wife is struggling to hit 50k words in 30 days, so by comparison you are a monster. Looking forward to solstice, when you feel it is ready. Lol, at least we don't have to wait years like certain other popular authors.
Totally agree.
Thanks for everything pirate
Love your work, take whatever time you need and do whatever voodoo you need to make it feel right to you.
Yay for writing
All is hype! Even though I watch the streams I’m still looking forward to seeing the final, edited version at the end.
Normally I'm a hungry duckling but I think especially for big moments/arcs you should take all the extra time you feel is worth it. Honestly if you felt it was best to take a month off to recharge right now I'd be very supportive :)
It has taken me since 2017 (maybe earlier?), when I started the audio books to read this in entirety. I've been using it as the thing I do during insomnia and unemployment. This tale has kept care of me through so many things; animatronics, 3 years of working on a stop-motion film, and then some. After moooonths on the patreon, I've finally caught all the way up with the writing. I'm stoked. I'm here. I'm ready. Thank you for all of your hard work.
You are amazing and if it takes more time it takes more time. Don't wreck yourself if you need more time.
You’re awesome and the story’s awesome
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