On Completing Chapter 1

I just want to pause here for a second and reflect on the last few months of my writing process, because it's a good day for me and therefore the world.

Today, I published the first draft of a "completed" chapter 1 of my new book.

Four months ago I was pretty depressed about writing. Sprites, Jets, and Elves just wasn't the story I wanted it to be. It was the fourth story I'd begun and not finished in four years. I saw the failures of my work with Gredunza Press and Lattice, and I didn't know where to go.

For some reason, I started reading a lot about github, the popular code repository. Coding isn't something I've ever done, but there's no difference in between coding and fiction. Literally, none. You pick a language and then try to write a compelling argument. That's all writing is. If you write well in code, an application runs and it feels like magic. If you write a good story, the reader's imagination runs and it feels like magic. What inspired me about Github is their versioning system. Scrivener, the writing app I use, has a versioning system baked in that I've never used before. Whenever you feel like it, you just click "new snapshot" and it keeps a nice backup of your document, so that you can mess with it without worry.

I'm currently using a process I outlined here, and it seems to be working thus far. If the numbers are confusing, don't worry about it. I'll make a big deal when a chapter is "finished" and you can read those and just skip the in-between releases. I'm not nearly as anxious to delete or replace, and I'm spending less time chewing on phrasing and more time getting everything down. That's one of the reasons I put quotations around "complete" when I linked to the chapter. It currently stands as version 1.2.9, but I will likely make a 1.2.10 with various "bug" fixes.

Obviously, adding in a new structural component doesn't explain why I've fallen back in love with writing. But the other things are less tangible. The other things are feelings, and they'll be in the book itself, if I can actually wrangle them properly.

None of this should really be important to you, the reader. I just hope you like the chapter. But it's important to me, because it helped me get to a point where I could offer you a chapter. It's been about three years since I've finished a chapter I've actually been proud of. Thanks for your patience.