Extended Writing Update

The saga of Chapter 9 torturing me continues, but I'm gonna win this battle if it's the last thing I do. I hit the high of realizing the overall flow is working shockingly well given how hard it's been to write. Then I realized that an entire mini-scene I was planning to write needed to be scrapped, because it introduced too many differences between branches. It was to the point where if you played one route you'd have a different impression of some really key points to the plot. I don't want to require people to play the game multiple times to understand what's happening 😅 So, in the bin it goes.

The upside to this is I think I finally know how to finish this chapter. And if nothing else, the pain now will (hopefully) ensure I don't fall into this same mistake during book 2. I had a really lovely interaction with a friend that helped me get re-motivated with all this - we did a body doubling day where we both worked on our creative pursuits and it got me back in the zone.

I spent the non-writing portion of things on map making, as you might've already seen. It was great. It was also mildly terrible seeing all the cities on the map and knowing I can't get MC to all of them in 3 games. There's so much happening everywhere and I'm screaming a little at how we're only going to make it to 3-4 cities. Then again, I guess "never say never" applies here.

On an unrelated note, starting this patreon is one of the best things I've done for Leas. I'm diligent already (300k words' worth of diligent 😆), but having the external deadline of "you have write a respectable alpha update each month" is a huge motivator.

Without further ado, here's this week's preview :)

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I move forward under the blazing sun, picking my way east through the brush. Unlike Leas' gardens behind the walls, there are no human-friendly paths so I follow what the animals have carved out of the landscape.