Project Amble Newsflash

This fortnight, I've mostly been working on Chapter 3! I finished drafting Chapter 2 on the first Monday of the fortnight, and this week I had the editorial notes back for it.

Here's a track from my writing playlist to get you in a The Earth Has Teeth mood: No Rest For These Bones by Inon Zur from the Fallout New Vegas OST.

Not that, er, I've done very much revising yet because a) I need to have a bit more of a think about some stats (I need to streamline them a bit) and b) I've been really busy planning Chapter 3. It's the biggest chapter so far and I can tell it's going to be one of those ballooning type ones: the PC is meeting new characters, exploring a new place, and developing some relationships with characters they already know. There's a lot going on!

Writing Progress

This week was a bit of a weird one because I've been a bit ill and have had poor sleep, and because I was doing a lot of planning by hand (plus writing queueing up lots of social media posts), my progress spreadsheet looks rather empty in the first half of the week.

Then today I was coding most of the day and suddenly broke 50,000 words!

Excerpt

The river grows wider as you walk. Then, slowly, the distant landscape shifts as you approach a vast lake: beneath the bright, sunny sky, it's a shock of blue ahead. As you approach the edge, the smell and taste of salt hits you, stinging your eyes.

"Ugh!" Issi says, squinting. "We're not going there, are we?"

Nikita folds ${nik_their} arms, ${nik_their} mouth a thin line. "If we don't want to spend more time and supplies going around Lake Hasri, we'll cross the river," ${nik_they} ${nik_say}. "Which is faster. But dangerous."

•  "Best to cross the river—it'll mean there's less time exposed to storms."

•  "Cross the river. Getting there quicker means we can gather more."

•  "We should go around Lake Hasri—I don't want to risk the crossing."

•  "Let's go around the lake. We might find something useful on our way."

Oh, and there's this:

I haven't made a firm decision yet, but by the time it's the next newsflash I will need to!

Wordcounts

• Total The Earth Has Teeth wordcount: 52525 words

• Average The Earth Has Teeth playthrough: 19096 words

• Fortnight progress: 13889 words

Next writing

Chapter 3 all the way! I'll still be working on it next time I post one of these because I must emphasise: it is Large.

Recap

This fortnight the Raffi & Stargazing friends-to-lovers story went up, as well as the lovely The Earth Has Teeth intro reveal! I was so pleased to show it off!

Next up on Patreon

• 11th Feb (bonus supplement): Beaumont story

• 12th Feb (sneak preview): First Project Amble RO reveal (Armell)

• 19th Feb (sneak preview): Second Project Amble RO reveal (Dr Kiriyak)

Oh, another thing is that I've resurrected my long-dormant Tumblr sideblog, IF Seal, in which I answer questions about interactive fiction via the voice of an adorable seal. I'm going to try to post an answer each Monday: next one is on 10th February.

Have a good weekend!