Fakeminsk TG Fiction: Constant in All Other Things

Ramble: On Escaping

As a milestone birthday gift to myself, I booked myself into an Airbnb for three nights. This brought raised eyebrows and confused comments from family and friends. Really? people asked. That's what you want? To be on your own for your birthday? The milestone gave a solid excuse--wanting to try my hand at starting to write a novel--but the choice itself baffled people.

I kind of get it. Leading up to my little escape, I came very close to cancelling. First, because it felt very selfish....

Writing Update: 01/11/24

Okay, so I'm away on my 'writing retreat' milestone birthday treat to myself. Today's been the first full day of writing. There's been some procrastination, some reading, a little exploration--and some productive writing. I managed a solid 5k today--a record for me, I think, at least in recent times. I reached the end of Julia's revenge scene. It was a fairly harrowing one to write; it's not a very pleasant scene and I'm glad it's finally done.

I'm not going to post a timeline for next ...

Constant 3, Chapter 5-4: Circe

As with every scene in chapter five, this one's

Sneak Peek: 5-5, Julia's Revenge

A short sneak peek, and like last week from the scene currently in-progress, chapter 5-5 "The Death of David Saunders". This is the final approach to the culmination of Julia's revenge, though whether it plays out as expected remains to be seen. As always, this is an early draft of a work in progress and liable to change by the final edit.

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            “Time flickered again. Now, we were in my condo. I told it to dim...

Weekly Update: 23-10-24

Honestly, not much to update this week. Real-life has made it difficult to get to the keyboard, with very little down- or personal-time to spend on writing. Fortunately, I've got a unique opportunity coming in which to make up the lost time.

Basically, my birthday is approaching and it's one of those 'significant' numbers that end in a -0 or a -5. Consequently, I've decided to treat myself this year. I've been squirreling away some of the money that comes in from the patreon, and used i...

Fanart by Fraylim: Red Bikini

Okay, this one's pure fan-service. There's been more than one request to get Cindy into a swimsuit. When it finally happens, I think we can be fairly certain it'll look something like this, though those shoes don't look at all practical for pool-side.

No specific prose to go alongside this picture - yet.

Chapter 5-3

The near-complete version of chapter 5-3: The Long Night.

This is a bit of a short bridging scene between Julia's backstory and the final sweep of her revenge.

Though I think some parts of it are important - it should be building up some ambiguity about Tom's role in all this - I do wonder if the scene is, in fact, necessary - and whether I should excise the whole thing in the final edit to up the pacing a bit.

Well, in any case, enjoy! And as always, If you want to, why no...

Sneak Peek: 5-5

A sneak peek from the scene currently in progress, Chapter 5-5: The Death of David Saunders.

As with all sneak peeks, these are liable to change before publication.

Enjoy! And as always, please feel free to comment.

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            “Time flickered. The four of us stood outside my block of condos. The air was cool, the moon pale behind patchy clouds. We stood in a line silhouetted by streetlights behind, our ...

Writing Update: 18/09/24

Start of week: 21,918

End of week: 26,638

Change: +4,730

Year to Date: 182,463

Some good writing this week, with a minor breathrough in writing scene 5-5 ('The Death of David Saunders'). This is the finale of Julia's revenge and it's been a difficult one to get right. It's been long planned. To be honest, it should have happened a few chapters ago. I suppose it's somewhat a failure of plotting on my part that nearly an entire novel's length of writing has taken place a...

Chapter 5-2: Julia's Story

This was a tough one to write. I think the challenge of it is part of the reason I needed to take a break through August. My first few tries at writing it were just dead and dull on the page. Eventually, I rewrote the whole thing, shifting the narrative voice into the "fairy tale" mode you'll read below. I also trimmed out some bits that got moved into 5-1, and also into 5-3. Zooming in for the key moments, like the first meeting with David, is what finally helped me break through the scene. ...

Writing Update: 11/10/24

Start of week: 18,612

End of week: 21,918

Change: +3306

Year to date: 177,743

Not much to report this week: a steady trickle of words against the backdrop of a busy work week, as I wrestle the current scene into submission. It's taking a couple of rewrites to get through Julia's revenge scene, to get the pacing and dialogue right, and I suspect it'll need some serious trimming before release, all of which diminishes the reported word count. However, it feels as though ...

Fanart by Fraylim: A Night Out

No specific text to go along with this one: Fraylim titled it "DavidNightOut" and I think that covers it. I've tried to hint throughout recent chapters that there's a full and hectic life being lived in the background - hints of catching up with Bruno, the bouncer at the club Tartarus, or nights out with the girls from work, Emma, Willow and Mel. I imagine this as Cindy's outfit on one of those nights out. Though based on the look on their face, perhaps not entirely of their choosing...

Sneak Peek: Memories by Moonlight

Another sneak peek, from later in the "Julia's Story" scene - I'd post the whole scene, but don't feel it's quite ready yet. Another editorial pass, and I'll post it next week Wednesday.

After a brief but intense relationship with David Saunders, he dumps her and her world falls apart. Returning home, she has the following melancholy moment:

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            Later that night, she fled the lonely silence of her house...

Sneak Peek: Julia's Story

From chapter 5-2: Julia's Story. A sneak peek at Julia and David's first meeting. Another editing pass or two, and the full scene will be ready for publication.

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            Tom left soon after. Another drink, and then David went home with her. He followed her back to the large house she shared with the other girls, and the musty little room that was hers alone. The journey home was punctuated by surreptitious touches ...

Writing Update: 04/10/24

Change: +4,791

Year to date: 174,437

Last week, chapter 4 was released to FM, with its final scene ("Icarus") posted to TGS and SH. Across all three platforms, it landed with barely a whisper: a few comments on FM (two positive, one critical) and nothing more, which is a bit disappointing.

On the other hand, there's been a positive up-tick on the writing front, with the word count rising back to its pre-summer levels. Whilst just under 5k fo...

Constant 3: Chapter 5-1

This one definitely falls into the "nearly complete" collection, with an emphasis on "nearly". Though currently working on 5-4, I feel there'll be a need to return and tweak this earlier scene significantly once I've completed chapter 5. This chapter--and scene--have proven surprisingly challenging to write (as mentioned previously) and though I think they've come a long way, they're not quite there yet. It's relatively short at just over 4,000 words but hopefully adequately sets up Julia's s...

Writing Update: Normal Service Resumes!

Hello all,

After a month-long hiatus, I'm pleased to say everything should be returning to normal as of tomorrow.

I say 'hiatus', but I've stlll been writing and posting. As of today, all subscribers have access to (almost) everything that's been written for Constant to date.

So, looking at the week ahead:

Monday (today): Constant 3, Chapter 4 published in full for all subscribers. It's undergone a few tweaks from the earlier posting...

Writing Update: 27/09/24

Start of week: 11,226

End of week: 14,102

Change: +2876

Year to date: 169,646

A few notifications this week:

--> Chapter 4-6 was released to all members

--> Chapter 4-5 was publically released on TGStorytime and Scribblehub. Chapter 4 (as a single chapter) will go out to FM next week. Not a lot of traction on SH anymore: after the initial flurry of reviews, it's definitely died down and the only recent review was to tell me they didn't like the direct...

Weekly Update: 20/09/24

Word Count: +2,781

It's been a slow and at times painful process, but I'm easing back into the writing routine. I'm hitting (occasionally surpassing) the 500/day word minimum with greater ease once again, and I've shifted from the "this is all shit" stage back to the "actually, maybe this isn't so bad after all" stage.

Currently, I'm methodically rewriting what I wrote over August, namely most of chapter 5. This new version of Julia's story feels as though it's coming along much m...

Writing Update: 16/09/24

A long overdue update!

I think it's fair to say that by the end of July, or start of August, I was in a pretty sorry state.

From the perspective of somewhere better, I can look back at a few months ago and see that I wasn't in a very good place. This was due to a combination of things, of which writing was merely one but nevertheless a contributing factor. In other words, all the other usual stresses were there, work and life and so on, but maintaining the patreon and the word cou...

Cutting Room Floor: Icarus (darker version)

Whilst I continue to get back into my writing groove, I thought I'd share the original--darker--version of the Icarus chapter's ending. This didn't go through the extra revision of the published chapter--apologies for any errors that slip through--which is also why it reads differently (for example, I rewrote David's involvement in the physical action into passive verb form to indicate his psychological distancing from what was happening).

Part of me is still tempted to re...

Update: Paused

Hello!

As mentioned in the last update, I've now paused the patreon for the month. There shouldn't be any charges going through during September, with business returning to normal on October 1st. This gives me the month to get my house in order, as it were, and get ahead of the publication schedule once again. There's still be written content posted during the month, just less of it as I build up that buffer once again. I should have the first nugget ready to share by the end of the wee...

Writing Update: Holiday Ends

Hello!

Well, all good things and all that, and an unusually long holiday draws to an end. It's been a good one. Caught up with a cousin I hadn't seen in twenty years. Met a few friends I'm lucky to meet once a year. Ate far too much, and drove a couple thousand kilometres. A final drive now, and an overnight flight back to reality.

So, thank you for your patience and tomorrow, jetlag allowing, I'll be bringing these fingertips back to the keyboard and getting back to writing. 2024-08-25 22:50:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Writing Update: 16/08/24

Holiday!

As mentioned in the previous update, next week I'll be on holiday. There won't be any posts during the week, and I'll be making a conscious effort to disconnect.

However, it hasn't been an entirely idle week. Though there hasn't been much writing, I did give chapter four a full review before posting. At 48k words, it took a little longer to edit than expected, but I managed to tighten up the prose here and there, and squash a few typos. I think it holds together fairly we...

Fan Art by Fraylim: The Last Night

A fantastic image by Fraylim this week to whet your appette for a future scene. No spoilers this week, just the image. Enjoy!

Constant in All Other Things 3: Chapter 4

For the archives: Constant in All Things 3: Cha

Sneak Peek: Chiaroscuro

Sorry for the delay in getting this one out. This sneak peek is from the beginning of chapter five, and brings the reader back to the so-called "funeral". This (should) bring that story arc to its conclusion, exit Julia from the story (kinda), and bring us into the final sweep of chapters leading to the conclusion.

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            We lapse back into a sullen silence. Like heavy shadows, the events of the past months seet...

Writing Update: 09/08/24 (a day late)

Word Count Change: +0

Well, I'd hoped to work some writing into my holiday, but between traveling, family, and catching up with people, there simply hasn't been time--or perhaps more importantly--personal space and privacy for writing.

Honestly though, I think I was pretty much due a break from writing, anyway. By my spreadsheet, I've been writing pretty much daily for a little over a year now, and was getting a bit worn down. After finishing chapter 4, I launched straight into ch...

Fan Art by Fraylim

Whilst not necessarily secretarial, Fraylim's design for this one just seemed perfect for Cindy at work. In this case, the artwork preceeded the writing, and I worked it into a scene. To be honest, it felt like a bit of a waste of such a great image on such a short scene; I should've made more of it, possibly. Nevertheless, enjoy!

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From chapter 4:

            The next day, Monday. She didn’t s...

Constant 3: Chapter 4-6

Whilst I'm considering this one complete, I'm more than a little uncertain about it. It went through three different versions before settling into it's current state; I'm curious what readers will think of it. Enjoy? And as always, feedback appreciated!

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Six: Icarus (8,434)

There’s something intimately familiar about Icarus. Nights spent in nondescript rooms, mini fridge and inoffensive art on beige walls, and always some kind of hotel bar: long c...