First Published: 2022 April 28
I’m less than 2000 words away from my monthly goal and I’ve been writing nearly 2000 words a day recently, so I really believe I can make it. I’ve realized that the plot is steadily progressing less and less with each chapter, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I’m writing because it’s interesting to me and the scenes I write are interesting now and I feel set me up for other interesting future events. On the other, I think I’ve so far spent 5000 words talking about growing magical cotton and probably have another 5000 coming.
I’ve finally formalized some of my thoughts about themes I want to include in the book, which is nice. I don’t quite know how to subtly weave them in so it’s not just a “By the way the world was actually terrible this whole time” without also doing the reverse of “do you get it yet? the message that I’m beating you over the head with?” I don’t think that it should be a fine line to walk, but I feel like it is one. I’ve taken the advice to have time pass less explicitly, though I’m back to being explicit again, which is a little sad. On the other hand, I have him working constantly over the span of two days, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t that much. I think I said the next big plot point would occur in two in-universe months, but I also never gave actual lengths for those, so I guess that’s also optional. Anyways, all this to say I greatly enjoy writing the book, and I’m optimistic that I may be able to come to a satisfying book ending in the next 40000 words or so.