July came and went like a breeze. I suppose it helps to keep busy; with a weekend away, two pitch events, and a whirlwind of work and drafting, the days pretty much slipped by. Which, honestly, is good in my book, because humid heat like the stuff New York’s been experiencing lately does not get along well with me. So needless to say, I’m rocketing into the last month of summer, looking forward to the cool air of autumn.
Well, that, and I’m armed with updates. Because I’d spent a lot of time cooped up in air conditioning.
Writing Update
The Nameless Song
The Nameless Song, draft 5, is complete. So that’s one thing. I fully admit I’d wrapped it up with a mess of summaries, because I’d had a series of rapid revelations towards the end of the month that made me realize there are a few things I need to change about the foundations of the plot. Yes, yes, I know—probably the fourth time that’s happened, but the thing about The Nameless Song, which I’m both understanding and acknowledging now, is that it started off as a mess. A ton of ideas for worldbuilding, a plot that sprawled lengthy arcs, millions of characters, pretty much everything you’d expect from, you know, 1m-word-long fanfics. It’s taken me a very long time to learn that to write fiction meant for books, you need to think smaller. More concise.
So with each draft, I’m cutting things down and tightening things up. This time around, we’re cutting one of the antagonists (there were four in total), elevating two characters in importance to remove a slew of background characters, and finally . . . of all things, adding a subplot. I know I just said I’m doing a lot of cutting, but this is to tie the new characters to the old plot a little more tightly.
Part of me feels a little guilty about circling back on this book and overhauling it again and again, but as the Tiktokers say, trust the process. See, the interesting thing about each draft is I’m learning a little more, not only about how to draft a book instead of an epic fanfiction that spans 500k words over 70 chapters, but also about this story. The trash draft I just wrote helped me understand that although Mick and Eleanor’s relationship is at the heart of this story, it’s ultimately about Mick as the dragons’ shepherd. The next draft, if I implement the ideas I have in mind for it, will be better centered around Mick as a peacemaker and Eleanor as his partner and counter: a deal-broker. In short, I know there are drafts and drafts and iteration after iteration of this story, but little by little, we’re getting to a final form for this story.
Interestingly, I’m also planning on bringing in a second fantasy race to play off the dragons and give Mick and Eleanor more opportunity to build political skills. That fantasy race: the zizzun, a bee race that Bsky is already in love with.
In other words, I am very much looking forward to this next draft.
That all said, the plan right now is that I’m going to be using August to take a “break” similar to the one I took between drafts 4 and 5—that is, not really write prose so much as notes in preparation for draft 6. This includes reoutlining, breaking down character arcs, and writing out all the points of relevant worldbuilding I’ll need to know. In September, I’ll be diving into draft 6 and writing at what I hope to be a rate of a chapter every week or two until we’re done. By my estimation, that means we’ll likely be wrapping up draft 6 sometime in late spring 2026. After that point, it’ll go through a round of self-editing, followed by another round of betaing sometime summer 2026.
By then, I’m sure I’ll have the publication plan figured out. (Let’s just say the shenanigans involving Itch has made publishing traditionally and self-pub equally . . . interesting.)
The Infinite Sadness
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that editing The Infinite Sadness, a work that was already completed and posted on AO3, is going well. That said, though? It’s going amazingly well. I’ve always loved where this story went and how it portrayed Mick and Eleanor, and getting back into it feels a lot like getting to know Mick again.
That said, editing is going better than anticipated. As of this writing, the first chapter is ready for posting, and the second is in progress. And one fun thing to note is that the first time around, I wrote it like I wrote TNS: with a vague idea of the plot at first, only to have major revelations halfway through. A lot of the editing going on involves dropping hints as to what’s going on earlier. Or outright stating them. And quite frankly, I’m enjoying adding those bits in.
For example (and as a little taste):
“Between the two of you, yes, Mick, I would rather have you do it,” Marcie replied. “However, even if you left, Matthew isn’t gonna do this job forever, either. A Martin just needs to be in the kitchen and the office. We can hire more delivery drivers from practically any family in Southwind. And believe me, there are plenty of kids out there who’d be just as eager to do what you do.”
She couldn’t hire more delivery drivers. Their father hadn’t thought about getting life insurance before he’d had that widowmaker coronary four years ago, so the only thing he’d left after his funeral was a mass of debt, the restaurant, and a family scrambling to put things back together. Mick had cut a deal with his siblings that summer, and suffice to say, Marcie would be hard-pressed to find a delivery boy to work for the peanuts he did.
He wasn’t going to remind her of this, though. Frankly, Mick wanted an out of this conversation more than he wanted to get into any of this. His siblings had mourned and moved on. He’d mourned and moved on. Life went on, and he didn’t regret the deal he’d made four years prior.
But there were times when he didn’t want to have a conversation about that, and this?
“What our dear sister means to say,” Bill continued, “is that you don’t want to spend all your life here.”
This was one of those times. This was definitely one of those times.
So all in all, I feel like I needed to come back to The Infinite Sadness. For the entirety of draft 5, something bothered me about Mick’s character, as you likely know from past newsletters. And I know it had everything to do with the fact that Mick is naturally an introspective character, prone to long bouts of thought in lieu of actually talking and doing. Which absolutely is a character flaw and not something I would recommend everyone do with their main characters, I know, but the point is, draft 5 was suffering from that.
This, on the other hand? Feels right. And I hope that the deeper I go into editing, the more I’ll be able to relearn how to write these characters, which I’ll then take back to writing the actual book. Which, honestly, is the entire point of writing AUs like these, put frankly. (Maybe I’ll do it more often, between books, haha.)
In any case, editing has been going so well we’re actually moving up the launch date. (Don’t worry. We’re still ending on the 30th anniversary of the album that partly inspired this work.) Instead of August 21, expect the first chapter to drop on August 15th. Again, for free and for subscribers only, so hold onto your subscriptions!
Looking Forward
August
Like I just said, the first chapter of The Infinite Sadness will be dropping for subscribers only on August 15. After that, we’ll actually be doing one chapter every Friday.
Additionally, three different pitch events are slated to pop up next month: QuestPit (August 6), QueerPit (August 15), and PosterPit (August 16). I’m planning on pitching The Nameless Song to all three, but also, I’ll likely be pitching The Infinite Sadness as well, especially to PosterPit. Anything to get the word out about its launch. ;)
Lastly, I’ve also moved up the date I’ll start streaming again. Instead of September, I’ll be starting the first Tuesday of August, with streams every Tuesday on YouTube until TNS is done.
September
Birthday month! 🎉 Additionally, starting TNS draft 6 in earnest and continuing to stream, as mentioned above. (TIS should be fully edited and queued for posting to Beehiiv by this point.) Writing events are TBD.
October
Writing events are also TBD, so it’ll be all about continuing on with draft 6 and streaming weekly.
Also, TIS’s epilogue will drop on October 23, which I realize is a Thursday, but hey.
November
It’s Bsky’s writing community, so there is a non-zero chance somebody’s running a NaNo event again.
Including me. I’m running a NaNo event. I’m bringing back 30 Days, 30 Lines for accountability sake. Short explanation: 30 Days, 30 Lines is a thing I used to do back on Tumblr where I’d write for 30 days total (doesn’t have to be consecutive—I just can’t let a week go by without writing) and post my favorite line each day I write. A formal set of rules will be drawn up and posted sometime in October, if you’d like to follow along.
Other than that, the only writing event that is for sure happening in November will be WIPPit, which I’ll be joining with TNS.
Pic of the Month
Despite a weekend away and weekends at the height of summer, the most interesting picture of the month is probably a sketch I did of the zizzun, the new fantasy race at the center of The Nameless Song’s next draft:
In general, I’d been a busy bee on Bsky, as it were, and to put a long story short, there was an entire thread of bee sketches of questionable quality. (I am not an artist; I just felt like drawing a lot of bees.) Here are more highlights from that thread:
(For more bee doodles, check out Bsky.)
As always, thanks for reading! Don’t forget to keep an eye on Bluesky for minor updates between the hefty monthly ones.