Extended Writing Update

We've got another 2,500 words added to Leas: Fae Moon Rising! It's slow going in the beginning these days, mostly because I've spun so many side plots and future things to lay groundwork for. I'm constantly checking my outline to make sure I'm incorporating everything, and I've reshuffled the order of a few moments multiple times. I'm also debating adding in some "flashback" scenes here and there, to kind of cover some of what MC experiences in the time skip. Not so much plot-related things but time spent with the ROs. I can't imagine that anyone will object xD

Ultimately my reasoning is that I'm not sure if I've provided enough "length" of relationship for one of the things I want to do in this game. It's a pet peeve of mine when things happen too soon in stories, and one of my struggles when writing is giving myself the grace to not be unreasonably strict with that. Like, "yes okay this is a little bit fast but I've already written over 400k words and the entire lord of the rings trilogy is about 480k" 😳

Idk, can't I just write a DLC where all we do is chill with the ROs and do mundane (or what passes for mundane at the end of book 1) life things in Leas? Slice of life genre lovers, are you out there?

I also lean towards the idea of one flashback scene because, without spoiling anything, 1/3 of the romance-enjoying playerbase is going to be pissed at me for chapter one...😅 All I can say is keep running and holding my hand, I promise you're going to feast in later chapters 😂

A random retrospective thought - I fussed for a long time over whether the chapter 11 scene in book one was too dark. Without spoilers for those who haven't played the beta: the information-gathering mission can be a lot, if your MC wants it to be. But now as I go into book 2 I'm glad I included the darker elements to book 1. Things like the caterpillar fae being so hostile, the villain being so cruel, the option for MC to make morally dubious decisions, and the choice in chapter 12 about whether to, ahem, make some very bold decisions about who lives and who dies... It all makes me feel much more comfortable about the places we'll be exploring in book 2, around the middle of the game.

But don't worry! It's not all going to be hard and heavy. Well, maybe the romance scenes in another way but - (oh my god I have the humor of a twelve year old today). Anywayyyy, there'll be lots of fun moments similar to the Lasan festival and dates in book one. We'll have a whole new city and three new regions of the wilds to explore, if my outline goes according to plan. I'm really excited. Two of them I've had a decent idea of since the beginning of book one, and I'm really hype to share them with you. For the third, I have no idea what it'll look like, which is its own kind of excitement. Fun fact, one of the regions is similar to the area in The Visitor and the Magician, in the way of "oh these two are clearly cousins."

Whew this was a long update! Let's get to this week's preview snippet now:

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"[drainer_helperSheHe] snuck me some notes on the drainers' current states," Wren explains. "It's small comfort compared to being able to see them in the infirmary, but I'm hoping I can glean something from it. Or at least figure out what questions to ask."