Fakeminsk TG Fiction: Constant in All Other Things

Sneak Peek: Book 2, Chapter 1 (rewrite)

Instead of looking at the leading edge of the story (chapter 6), here's a glimpse at the rewrite of Chapter 1. I've torn up the old Interlude and salvaged some of its bits to integrate into the new chapter 1, along with bits of chapter 2. More on this in the update later today, but for now, here's David's awakening following the end of Book 1.

As always, still very much a work in progress; I hadn't quite appreciated how much work the editing of the start of Book 2 needed. But with Cons...

Cutting Room Floor: Book 1, Chapter 8

As part of revising and editing the first book

Ramblings: On Book One

The first "book" of Constant is now up and complete on TGStorytime. I'd put off for years giving the old chapters a skim through and edit, probably because I knew it'd be a lot of time and effort. In my mind, I was always going to do it as part of the final edit once I read the final chapter or two of the whole story. But I'm glad I did it now. One, it's encouraging to see the traction it's gotten on TGStorytime, and I think it's drawn in a few new readers, and that's wonderful.

For me...

Ramblings: On Editing and Rewriting

As part of posting the first half of chapter 6 of Constant in All Other Things, I finally took the step to looking back over the older chapters and editing them.

It's something I ought to have done ages ago but kept putting off.  Some chapters I hadn't looked at since first publishing them. I also rediscovered bigger edits I'd made four or five years ago, during one of my earlier attempts at getting back into writing.  The expanded scene where David reached Amanda Lang first i...

Ramblings: On Posting Chapter 6

I posted the first half of Chapter 6 on Thursday night. It's now been up for a full weekend; here's some thoughts:

1. I invest -way- too much of myself into this! I only mean that half-seriously, but I honestly sleep terribly that first night wondering what the feedback's going to be. Which is crazy; the internet's a terrible place to seek validation!  I really need to learn to post these thing on a workday morning before heading to work.

2. Uptake's been... disappointing, bu...

Writing Update: 15/03/24

Start of week: 29,999

End of week: 34,922

Change: +4923

Year to date: 54.322

The word count hides a lot of additional work that's gone into Constant this week. At one point the word count dipped into the negative as I cut stuff away. The earlier part of the week was really challenging, as well: I was stuck on a particular scene and really struggled to push through, and everything I wrote those days felt forced and dead on the page.  Fortunately, it opened up on Th...

Publish: Chapter 6 (part 1/2)

Gave it a final read through, caught a bunch mo

Sneak Peak: The Story of Jonas

The first half of chapter 6 is pretty much ready to publish, but in the meantime, here's a glimpse of what follows after.  This follows a short scene with Julia.  I'm a little unsure with this transitional stuff, though it's setting up some important plot points for later in the narrative.  In any case, this'll be wrapping up the clubbing experience and set up the next "story", which will bring us back to that first week back at work, and resolve the Dan storyline.

Enjoy!...

Cutting Room Floor: Chapter 6

I thought I'd try somethin a bit different today, instead of the usual "sneak peek".  Word count is a little lower so far as I've been putting effort into the first half of the chapter in preparation for publishing it later this week.  Instead of something in progress in draft form, I thought people might enjoy peeks at some of the stuff that gets cut - material written and then discarded during editing.

(There's a fair bit of this stuff.  I usually keep a "cuts" folder t...

Publish: Chapter 6, Part 1

A little editing time opened up this weekend, a

Writing Update: 08/03/24

Start of week: 23,000

End of week: 29,999

Change: +6,999

Year to date: 49,399

I found the writing more difficult this week, in part due to real-world concerns but also because the scene was tricky to get right and took a few tries.  It's not quite there yet but I'm feeling pretty good about it.  (I'm sure I'll change my mind about it later!)  With the clubbing scene done, I'm back to the "funeral" frame and setting up the next "story" by David, which tak...

Sneak Peek: Cindy and Jonas

Writing continues apace on Chapter 6.  I've found this scene tricky to write--fun, but tricky.  The dynamic between Jonas and Cindy took me a few tries to figure out.  I'm not entirely sure I'm there yet, but I feel it's coming along nicely.  I'm pushing this moment as a transformative one for David--under the influence, it's the first time he's able to lower his defences and truly enjoy the experience of being Cindy.  Or at least, that's how he's presenting the story...

On How I Write

Over on the FM mesage board, I posted the question: "How do you write?"  Answers have started trickling in, and it's an intiguing mix of approaches.

For any writers following along here, what's your process, your method--how and where do you write, and what works for you, if you don't mind sharing?

I can see my own writing broken across several phases of my life.  There was a period, way back when, during which I wrote whenever the urge hit me.  Initially my own sto...

Writing Update: 01/03/24

Start of week: 16,770

End of week: 23,000

Change: +6,230

Year to date: 42,400

Passed 20k words for chapter 6 of Constant this week, which feels like a bit of an achievement.  The first "season" of Constant almost all came in at around 20k--but from about chapter 4 onwards they've blossomed in size; I don't know if that's a sign of growing confidence or poor editing! 

I may take a week-long break once I reach a natural stopping point in Constant (the sto...

Sneak Peek: Chapter 6 (to date)

For your enjoyment, Chapter 6 to date.  At this

Sneak Peek Redux: Clubbing

Huh, I should've waited a day before posting the sneak peek for this week.  Had another pass at the clubbing scene, and tightened it up a bit.  Trying to capture the booze- and drug-fuelled euphoria of it all, and the swirl of experiences: more rambling and fragmented with the drink, long paragraphs of disjointed images; short, choppy sentences with the drugs along with the shift in PoV.  

In any case, here's the rewrite - hope you enjoy! Hopefully, I'll have the rest of ...

Sneak Peek: Story of the Dress

A minor setback, as I started writing the next "story" in chapter 6.  The framework bit with Julia and David at the "funeral" came out pretty good, and I started into the next bit of the story without problem (other than the crippling cold i was writing through).  But as I trundled along, it started to feel--I dunno--lackluster, a bit soulless.  It picked up where Julia's story left off: getting ready for work the next day, facing that first day in the office and it was... serv...

Writing Update: 23/02/24

Start of week: 11,394

End of week: 16,770

Change: +5376

Year to date: 36,170.

An odd week.  Between jetlag and now this bloody cold, writing's been challenging.  Especially these last few days, in which struggling to my 500+ word minimum's been tough going, and what I've gotten down on the page has felt soulless and weak.  But then there was Tuesday, where I blew through 2000 words across two sittings and it all felt like good stuff.  My lesson ther...

Constant: A Timeline

With my brain swimming with a headcold I've brought back from abroad, writing's been a bit tricky this week.  Or rather, it started strongly--a solid, 2000-word day--when it was just jetlag, but man, this cold's killing me.  I was halfway through a tricky scene--Cindy in a sparkly dress on the dancefloor--and the screen was wobbling before my eyes, so I decided to work on something that'd been on the backburner for far too long: tidying up the timeline for Constant in All Other ...