20/03/2021 Patreon Devlog

Hi everyone! Time for this week's patreon devlog. Soon. SOON....these will be more interesting. I swear. LoL

This Week's Summary:

• Finished Chapter 13
• Mostly finished 14

The Ramble:

Sooooo.

I didn't quite manage to finish Lance's route. But I basically have only one ending left to write (the best ending) and should finish it very soon.

Partially, climax chapters just go slowly. They are difficult to "choreograph", and there are a lot of things to juggle when it comes to organising the flow of events. Thursday was also kind of a nightmare day in two areas. I did still manage to write every single day and meet my base word count goal but I didn't (obviously) write as much as I needed to in order to be done with the chapter by today.

So yeah, I have chapter 14 about halfway done at this point.

I basically still need to write the "best" ending - which is probably about 2000 - 2500 words long.

I've been worried about Lance's route length for a while now because it was really shaping up to be quite short. I knew this was, in large part, due to several early chapters needing to be fleshed out. But I was still worried I wouldn't even hit 100k.  Currently, the longest route is Magnus' route at 116,000 followed by Caleb at 114,000.

The shortest is Jack's at 102,000.

I want to keep the routes all within less than 10k of each other for consistency reasons. And I know that it won't be difficult to boost Jack's word count because there are several scenes I know need to be fleshed out. I expect to streamline Magnus' route as well and perhaps remove some places that are overly verbose. But realistically, Caleb's route won't be shrinking. It's already edited and as much as I tried to cut from it during that process, I really couldn't.

I always find it way easier to add to routes when editing than to cut. There's always a reaction I feel is understated, a transition I feel is needed, a scene that feels too brief, etc. Identifying large portions that need to be cut is just way harder.  BUT, even saying that, I was really concerned Lance's route would end up at 98,000 or 95,000, leaving me with a *massive* amount I needed to add for continuity's sake.

I'm really happy to say that's not going to be the case. Right now, Lance's rough draft is shaping up to be around 105,000 when it's complete, which is within the range of the other routes and, therefore, something I don't feel I need to stress out about.

The current total word count is 706,000

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

Really nothing this week. We didn't get any additional BG work or anything so I don't have any images to show...YET.

I can't wait until I have art and screen caps to put here. LoL!

Upcoming Week:

Finishing Lance's route is obviously top priority but I expect to have that done either by the end of today or within the next couple of days.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what my exact plan will be.

I could jump straight into editing Jack's route. Or I could jump into coding the alpha version of Ari's route.

I could also take a  short break from writing entirely and get some sprite work done.

The amazing thing about being done with this phase of writing is that I will have ACTUAL OPTIONS regarding what I want to do. No more purgatory! XD

That's all for now. Next devlog will be DIFFERENT. I can't wait. No more talking about endless writing. Omg. 

I'll be able to start releasing more content for testers. IMAGINE. *sparkle*

I shall see you guys then!