A bit of evisceration (among friends.)

I just got the final draft of Elevated chapter 5 in shape. After the post about the story overflowing its outline, I went back and looked at what I've added. A lot of it was exposition. It was good exposition and it belongs in the story. It just doesn't belong this early in the novel as the action is starting to pick up.

So, I gutted both big chunks of exposition, tightened them, and moved most of what was in them to later chapters. Then, I pulled in a bunch of stuff I'd had to push into chapter six. As it stands, chapter 5 is now a whopping 22 pages long, but it's much more coherent than the old, fifteen-page version was.

It will be hitting StoriesOnline.net on Friday.

Elevated Chapter 4 is out.

Chapter 4 of Elevated is in the submission queue for StoriesOnline.net. It's where the actual story really starts to diverge from the original outline and I'm glad it turned out as well as it did. This is the first time we really start to see that being a rich patrician in New Rome may not be all smoking blunts and sexing up the slaves.

I wrapped up the first draft of the second installment of Secret Diary of a Tomcat entitled A Tomcat and a Gentleman. I think it's about 2/3 ready, but in my desire to provide my readers with only the finest smut, I want to give it a little spit and polish before it goes out. Hopefully, it will be out next Friday when I release Chapter 5 of Elevated.

Elevated (and Expanded!)

When I started Elevated, it was meant to be a novella and my goal was to fit it into twelve chapters of 10-12 pages each.

I just started chapter nine of the second draft and the story keeps getting bigger. I'm still following the outline I set out with, but little details have a way of becoming significant story points and I am apparently really bad at judging the difference between a scene and a chapter.

At the current rate of expansion, Elevated will be sixteen-chapter novel with the average chapter running to 15-16 pages. But I already expect that the second derivative (acceleration of expansion) is going to be more significant to the final size of the story than the first (current rate of expansion.) There are already little things in the outline that I know are actually much bigger. The elevation ceremony and wedding each get one sentence. I suspect they'll actually take a full chapter or two.

This could end up being 300+ pages when it's done. On the plus side, I've been writing it almost non-stop since Friday, so the delivery schedule shouldn't change.

Three weeks' grace

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Friday, 18-Oct: "Elevated Chapter 3" and "A Girl Named Boy"

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Please allow me to introduce myself...

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Side Trips

As sometimes happens, a random comment (this time from another writer) reminded me of a story in my hopper and inspired me to push forward on it. A story I started probably ten years ago called Cred - about a corporate-groomed pop singer who slips the record company's leash and goes looking for her real music and the credibility that comes with it. Reading over the six pages I wrote back in 2003, it needed surprisingly little touch up and is now a complete 22-page first draft called Folded Too Long.

I've also been gathering notes and sketching out scenes for Made for Him and Until Morale Improves, the second and third stories about Topher and Allegra.

I haven't touched chapter 5 of Elevated yet. It's supposed to be my first priority each week, but sometimes a specific mood hits and I have to capture it regardless of whether or not it matches the story I'm supposed to be working on.

If I follow my road map, Until Morale Improves will revolve significantly Allegra's SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder.) As we get to the point where we can't deny that another summer is gone and winter is on its way, it's a lot on my mind.

I'm still kicking around when I want to start an epic - something 300 pages or more, the format that Stories Online readers seem to respond best to (and which epic to commit to.)

We're #1 (with a big, foam hand.)

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Friday is posting day

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Something a bit more esoteric

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October

With chapter two of Elevated edited and in the can, I decided to spend a bit of time trying to write something appropriately creepy for Halloween. I got through most of the first draft of a piece I'm calling The Thin Girl before I needed to get some sleep. Hopefully, I'll have it ready in time for the holiday.

Finishing

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Earning the "author" in authortomfrost

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