The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Howdy, patrons!

So I was a few hundred words away from finishing the next chapter of "Crushing The Competition" when the stomach bug caught by My Husband, The Dragon (™) hit me HARD and fast. Thursday was spent in the bathroom, Friday was spent in bed, and the weekend was spent in a dehydrated and miserable stupor. It...was not a great time.

That's what happened last week, and why episode 8 of CTC didn't appear as promised. Sorry about that; the silver lining is that I feel much better after taking a forced rest over multiple days and I'm ready to push myself a bit harder over the weeks leading up to Midwest FurFest. It's a little depressing to realize that we're already nearly halfway through November and I have done next to nothing on my to-do list. I suppose that's what happens with life, though. The difference between success and failure is learning how to roll with the punches and get shit done anyway.

Anyway, I'm hoping that things will begin to settle and now that there are fewer unexpected interruptions I can work out how to deal with the expected ones -- mainly the aforementioned MFF and Thanksgiving after that. The holiday is relatively easy to prepare for; you block off time for writing and make it sacrosanct. The convention is going to be a little trickier, though. It's basically an all-weekend party, and those scenarios don't lend themselves to plans or habits. Again, though, that's life. Roll with it and succeed, or don't and...well, deal with the consequences of your priorities.

I've been flailing around at the keyboard for a while, but truth be told I really am a novice writer. I haven't applied any kind of dedicated practice to my work, where I identify an aspect of storytelling that I'd really like to learn how to crack, then devote a project to figuring it out. Honestly, that's what this Patreon was meant to be -- a chance to marry an aspect of my practice to a project that had to be shown on a regular basis. With CTC, I mostly wanted to juggle a big cast of characters with a rapidly-evolving plot. Which, to be honest, really doesn't feel like a beginner's lesson.

Still, it's been fun distilling the story beats down to a series of essential conversations and encounters, each one laying the brickwork for what comes next. I'm learning that when all is said and done, it's the small stuff that lets you tackle the really big ideas. You have to find the biggest and grandest of concepts in the tiniest gestures. Those are the kinds of moments in stories that really take my breath away, and I think they're the moments I want to replicate.

That being said, I hope that CTC isn't progressing *too* slowly. I realize that the gap weeks aren't really helping, pacing-wise. I'm working on that.

For now, I'll keep plugging away at building up a buffer for the serial; once that's done, it's on to organizing and pre-writing for other projects. This week, CTC #8 will come through tomorrow, November 14th; I'll do my best to make sure #9 hits on Saturday, November 17th. From there, updates should be back to normal. Provided nothing else happens. 

I hope you folks are having a great week out there. See you 'round the Ranch!

-Jakebe