Alright, so. Spiritbinders has been beta-read, but I haven’t sent it off to be edited just yet. Still looking around for potential editors. However, I’m currently working on the second draft of my third short story: Clanless! The first draft ended up being a bit too long and too complex for the short story format, so I’m currently in the process of tightening it into a more condensed version. It still needs a bit more work before it’s ready for an excerpt, but it’s getting there!

It’s going to be a bit wild going from Spiritbinders to Clanless, I think, because the two stories could not be any different in terms of tone. Spiritbinders is looking to be someone of a “comfy and cute” story, while Clanless is going to be quite violent. In a way, it kinda encapsulates how divorced the north of Karatera is from the war, but I am a little worried that the tonal shift might be too sudden. I suppose I could rewrite it, but I’ve already written the thing and gotten attached to the characters, damn it! I might just move it down in the reading order, to number 4 or something.

In other news, I’ve jumped onto one of those “daily post” things on my Bluesky account, where each day I answer a prompt in response to a certain question. It’s proving fun, forcing me to rack my brain and actually think about the creative process. Here’s the ones I’ve done so far:

1. Writing goals for April are…? For me, my goals are to get my 2nd short story copyedited, to finish writing my 3rd, and to figure out what the hell the other 5 are going to be about.

2. Things I wish I knew before starting my current WIP… I wish I’d known how many of my short story ideas I would have to scrap or rewrite, either because the concept wasn’t sound, or it didn’t fit the format, or what have you. I also wish I’d realised I couldn’t edit LibreOffice docs on my phone.

3. Something I have learnt along the way… I think I’ve learnt how to tie into my character’s POV a bit better, as well as how to describe what they’re feeling at any one time. I have not, however, learned how to develop a half-decent work schedule.

4. The best thing I ever did for my writing… The best thing I ever did was join a writing group. I’ve been part of it for almost a year, I think, and the feedback I’ve gotten has greatly improved my writing!

5. The worst thing I ever did for my writing… I don’t think I have an answer for this, honestly. I guess I posted my first stories without doing a final beta read, but I haven’t been doing this long enough to do anything stupid or self-destructive… yet.

There’s thirty prompts in total, one for each day. If you’re interested in seeing my answers to them, why don’t you head on over and follow my Bluesky account? If you do, you’ll also be alerted to whenever I update my blog, so you don’t have to keep checking it out yourself! *shameless plug* *shameless plug*

That’s my update for this week. I’ll see you all next time!