It's been a long month.
A long journey.
9100 words has brought us to the point where I feel we're one chapter away.
In July, we reach an ending.
...I just took a deep breath. Something of dread, wonder, and fear. Knowing that it all comes down to this, and then...
...stick
the
landing.
2022-06-30 03:21:34 +0000 UTC View Post
In the very rough spirit of my trying to figure out what to do for luggage with Everfree Northwest (because there's still four days left on the Ko-Fi drive), there's a lot to unpack.
This chapter isn't the last -- but it probably represents the final source of ultra-terror for the writer within the story. I had to pull back the curtain, just a little. And I had to do so knowing that there are so many wh...
2022-06-27 00:10:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Oh, Natural Chapter Break. My oldest enemy.
Originally, I was thinking of this chapter as a pair of scenes. The first one wound up coming in just over 6K, and gave me a last line which I had to close on. So the second has to be its own chapter -- and for those who are reading this, here's a peek at the title: Moon-Touched.
But for now, this one stands on its own. And because of the divide, it means that the story will likely ...
2022-06-24 00:23:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Yep. This is going to be Cerea Month.
8100 words on this one, and the chapter title alone should be a pretty strong hint as to the current focus. But we're still tracking through the wrapup process, and that landing mat is as terrifying as ever. Plus this is exactly the wrong year to put any faith in the Russian judge. In fact, we may just ban the Russian judge. And the Prance judge. Because Prance.
In the meantime, the 2022-06-19 01:47:32 +0000 UTC View Post
The race down the homestretch begins.
In this case, I wound up tweaking the course. I had originally considered that this chapter could potentially go up to four scenes -- but then realized that two of them had to stand on their own. The pair which needed to be here wound up coming in at 6200 words and after the marathon of last month, I do not have the strength to feel guilt. (But check back tomorrow.)
In fact, I barely hav...
2022-06-12 01:15:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Before we go any further, I want to apologize. I know I didn't get a sponsored blog up this month: this is partially due to less-than-ideal time management on my part, and largely the fault of my last vaccine booster shot. I lost a good part of May's middle third to sitting very still and hoping to eventually feel better. It took a while.
(I'll repeat that in tomorrow's Very Important Ko-Fi Relate...
2022-06-01 00:51:08 +0000 UTC View Post
"I have been writing for sixteen hours."
...okay. I took a couple of breaks. I went outside twice. Ate once. Coughed a lot. But I didn't sleep, because I couldn't stop. I've been trying to reach this chapter for a long time and when I was finally in the middle of it -- I had to reach the end. No matter what.
...I am so tired.
And then it wound up as two chapters.
Now, for Patreon pledge purchases, I am countin...
2022-05-29 10:35:03 +0000 UTC View Post
I was going to work on Cerea's story today.
Then yesterday happened.
I have avoided as many news sources as I could for the whole of today. Twitter is shut down. I refuse to do more than glance towards anything with a comments section.
This is 7600 words of pure fluff. I know it. But I couldn't do anything more serious. T...
2022-05-26 00:27:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm exceptionally tired, so I'll keep this short.
The 7500 words of this chapter represent the last of the fans being turned on.
In the next, everything hits.
2022-05-23 01:47:35 +0000 UTC View Post
This is something which hasn't really come along lately: the single-day idea-to-publication story. My original intent had been to go for an DELWMG chapter. But I went for a walk this morning so I could contemplate it, and just before I got home... I found garbage in the street. Product packaging, because today was trash pickup an...
2022-05-19 02:30:40 +0000 UTC View Post
(Random Sidebar Image Grab! It's been so long since we've met!)
...so DELWMG ended April on a cliffhanger after all.
I did have a reason. I thought there was potential for the next segment to go megachapter and after a trip yesterday, I didn't have the strength for megachapter. (I also didn't know where a natural break point migh...
2022-05-01 00:57:57 +0000 UTC View Post
...I did not mean for this one to reach 10K on the word count.
We are now poised on the edge, and given the sheer number of things which have to happen in the next chapter... in truth, I'm not sure I can get it posted in April. There's one more pledge-charge publication to come this month, and it may have to be a one-shot or a Glimmer chapter or something else entirely. Because I'm going to wind up racing midnight on the 30th in order to make ...
2022-04-28 03:07:29 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been looking at the pacing on the story and, with two postings left for April, I have to make a decision. Because if I split the remaining postings between this and anything else, then I am going to end the month on a potential cliffhanger.
Y'all might kill me.
...well, not the full plural. But possibly someone in the group. Or a non-sponsor, because they might decide there's less to lose. And even if I dedicate the rest of the month to Cerea, I don't ...
2022-04-24 23:58:53 +0000 UTC View Post
So as long as I've got your attention, it's time for a semi-public apology. There are times when I compose in the site's own window, and I hit Publish on this chapter when it was still both about a thousand words away from completion and unedited. I revoked it immediately, and it's up now -- but the FIMFic notifications had already gone out.
Sorry 'bout that.
A bit over 7100 words on this one. The players are moving around the gameboard, and certain issu...
2022-04-21 00:46:10 +0000 UTC View Post
This slot nearly went to a Canterlot Deportation Agency story.
...no, really. I had an idea for one, and I was fully ready to go back into that world for a one-shot. I still intend to site-publish that idea. But it turned out to be the flank steak of story concepts, because it insisted on marinating. Every time I thought about it, I came up with more notes. More things to include. Day after day. And I was losing time to a piece ...
2022-04-17 23:48:49 +0000 UTC View Post
First, to calm the crowd: ideally, there should be another Glimmer chapter in April. However, to thoroughly mix metaphors, new one-shot stories may have to wait until the current headlong rush reaches some level of pit stop.
Second: I got ambushed by the enemy again. The Natural Chapter Break has been having its merry way with the last of March, and that's why this one came in at 5400 words. Any extra scenes placed into this section ...
2022-03-30 23:13:30 +0000 UTC View Post
And here the chaos begins.
(Not that chaos. The other chaos.)
(It's MLP. I keep having to clear that up.)
This is a case of Natural Chapter Break Point. (They do come up now and again.) 5900 words, and then -- well, it's been noted in the comments that there seems to be a series of cliffhangers in progress. Have you ever seen a centaur trying to hang off the edge of a cliff? Awkward.
Oh, and Cerea is now running around the p...
2022-03-28 01:24:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Those of you who's played or run tabletop RPGs will be familiar with the problems imposed a scattered party.
This isn't about the issues which rise from splitting up after the worst of it kicks in. We have multiple characters involved in this story. When it comes to current events, involved in this fight. And they're scattered all over the palace. As such, I had to use this chapter to establish where a lot of them are (minus Cerea & Emery, be...
2022-03-24 23:18:47 +0000 UTC View Post
I have been writing for eight hours.
I've been planning this moment for years.
Tartarus wasn't the end of the story.
8900 words.
The Siege Of The Palace begins.
2022-03-20 02:04:39 +0000 UTC View Post
A few days ago, someone in the chat server asked me when and if this story would resume.
I said "March 15th."
I consider myself to have kept my word. And, at 7100, my word count.
...if anyone left as a sponsor because I wasn't updating this one, you don't have to come back. Just -- don't give up on me just yet.
We're not quite done.
2022-03-15 23:53:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I said something very much like this as the first comment on an 8000-word chapter. I’’m going to repeat myself here.
The original plot arc and story plan for Cerea’s tale saw its first construction in late 2018. I continued to develop the concepts and master blueprint through February of 2019, which is when the first chapter went up. We’ve been following that track ever since.
I am not responsible for what the world did during the intervening time.
...
2022-02-27 02:16:58 +0000 UTC View Post
This is what I have notes for…
(I keep waiting for the backlash. Or more backlash. There may have been some backlash. It’s hard to tell and I’m not exactly in a good emotional place anyway.)
I was able to find the needed hours today, because yesterday was spent on hold. And when I say that, I mean that I spent about nine hours waiting for someone to answer a phone. Most of that was with Social Security, and the system kept dropping the calls —...
2022-02-24 01:49:14 +0000 UTC View Post
It’s very possible that some of you haven’t seen the recent blog, or been in the chat server. So I have to try and explain what’s been going on.
My best friend’s mother died.
I am writing this while sitting within an enclosed back porch in Florida: the same place I composed the 6300-word chapter which went up a few minutes ago. I came down in order to help with… everything. Offering presence, the benefit of my recent experience, and so...
2022-02-21 00:03:11 +0000 UTC View Post
So there's been this ongoing annoyance in the Comments section for a while. Someone who apparently hates everything I've done to the show's extant cast, but insists on sticking around because he wants to know what happened to Cerea. And he doesn't seem to be quite current in the story yet.
For the last few days, I've been resisting the urge to hit his userpage and post four words.
"I killed your waifu."
Just for fun.
11K on the word count. We proceed....
2022-02-14 02:43:53 +0000 UTC View Post
About 10,700 words on this one.
For those of you who've been reading since the beginning, all I can really say is this:
It's not as if I didn't warn you.
Here come the Comments screams.
My personal Tartarus will always allow those to go through.
2022-02-09 04:24:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Two centaurs.
9400 words.
The meeting.
The talk.
Some of the answers.
(The reveals are part of what terrify me for these sections. Showing how it all fits together, and hoping others agree that the pieces belonged to the same puzzle.)
And a natural chapter break point which people may try to beat me to death with.
February is the cruelest month...
I'll see you then.
2022-01-31 01:42:32 +0000 UTC View Post
There's about 9700 words in this chapter.
I was terrified to write every last one of them.
The next run will be harder. More draining. Saturated with fear.
The next chapter is where I have to explain myself, and hope the pieces all come together for the readers. That it makes sense.
And when that chapter ends, if it closes out January with no more to come for a time... I expect to hear screams.
2022-01-28 03:25:12 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a case where the scene didn't just take over the chapter: it wound up needing an entire chapter to itself -- just in the name of pacing. As with Twilight's dream in Triptych, I had to keep everything off to the side from the main journey. Fully swing out at the end of the previous chapter, use this one as a full flashback, and then get back into Tartarus when the next segment ope...
2022-01-24 22:28:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Abandon all hope, ye who read this chapter.
...actually managed to work that in.
This update came in at just over 8K. The next one officially moves into the Chapters I Am Terrified To Write stage of the story. And those of you who've been around for a while know what that means.
Backgrounds will be revealed.
Secrets are coming out.
The house of cards I've been building since the story began gets a chance to collapse.
<... 2022-01-22 03:49:13 +0000 UTC View Post
This hasn't been a good month.
I didn't want to post the first chapter of January this far in. But... it's January and for the last four weeks, it's felt like every other day has been an anniversary. One year since my mother tried to escape the care center and broke her hip. Since the covid diagnosis. Since the intubator. Since... everything. The calendar became a minefield, at least during those moments when it wasn't filled with emotiona...
2022-01-19 00:46:21 +0000 UTC View Post