Believe it or not, there was a few days this month when all the green chapters were done and I was working on the orange chapters. Then yesterday the story got like 400 likes. So the hole I've written for myself has gotten deeper.
Chapters written: 3,948 (+156) Chapters to be written (green): 32 (+7) Chapters to be written (orange): 541 (+24) Chapter 20 endings: 352 (+23) Highest orange chapter: 15 Highest green chapter: 6 Deepest Chapter: 31 Okay. A lot of invisible progress this month, but believe it or not a bunch of branches ended, and not every chapter sucked! So, count that as a win.
4,000 chapters. Wooo. Still a long way to go...and I might have to adjust my sights on what constitutes "done" on this project, because at the current rate I'll never finish. It's not all great writing, and many of the branches have gone off in weird directions; I had originally planned for things to be a lot tighter in terms of plot and characterization, but I'm not unhappy with how things have turned out...if nothing else, it's given me a lot of practice at writing, and other folks have had their chapters and branches as well. I'm continually surprised at what takes off in terms of popularity. If I ever finish this one, maybe that'll be a guideline for how future stories should go.
Chapters written: 4,075 (+127) Chapters to be written (green): 2 (-30) Chapters to be written (orange): 566 (+25) Chapter 20 endings: 375 (+23) Highest orange chapter: 14** Highest green chapter: 5* Deepest Chapter: 31 Whee...starting to alternate green/highest orange chapters, and I think if luck holds I'm going to start writing endings for white chapters, starting with the chapter 19s...but writing is slowing down a bit, so we'll see how it works out.
Also, rather surprised at the popularity of the Suicide Squad epilogue branch. Second one to reach 31 chapters deep!
Back home and writing/posting regularly again. Still a huge backlog to address, and trying to nibble away at it from both ends, but unlikely to meet the projected goal this month. Also, still trying to address reader requests - I can't get to most of them immediately, but I will when I get to those chapters eventually! Currently at 389 full-length branches (i.e. 20 chapters long), and there are two branches that go out to 31 chapters so that's relatively impressive for a story that's more about breadth than depth.
Chapters written: 4,151 (+76) Chapters to be written (green): 28 (+26) Chapters to be written (orange): 571 (+5) Chapter 20 endings: 393 (+18) Highest orange chapter: 13*** Highest green chapter: 5*** Deepest Chapter: 31 So. Little bit of busyness on my part which led to fewer chapters written, combined with an uptick on likes meant we had a bit of a disparity. That being said, the "both ends against the middle approach" (i.e. alternating highest green chapter-needing-to-be-written and highest orange-chapter-needing-to-be-written) seems like a positive step, so we'll try to continue that for July. Part of the issue was a lot of focus on epilogues in June, which generally are longer chapters that require more time and thought to write. Still, with a bit of luck, might be able to winnow away at the pile of chapters-that-need-to-be written, which as of this moment sits at 599 total...oof. Definitely in this one for the long haul.
The reason I'm trying to focus on completing branches is because at the moment there are nearly 400 endings...but there are hundreds more branches that just haven't been finished yet! So the sad fact is that a majority of folks that randomly start out will end up on an unfinished branch. You'd have to be incredibly lucky (or looking at the story map) to start out from the beginning and by making your own choices end up at one of the two chapter 31s!
Chapters written: 4,245 (+94) Chapters to be written (green): 55 (+27) Chapters to be written (orange): 590 (+19) Chapter 20 endings: 411 (+18) Highest orange chapter: 20 Highest green chapter: 5** Deepest Chapter: 31 Full chapter spread - I haven't done one of these in a while - showing chapter depth and (number of chapters to be written): 1: 1 (0) 2: 2 (0) 3: 6 (0) 4: 9 (0) 5: 17 (0) 6: 33 (0) 7: 65 (0) 8: 129 (8) 9: 188 (28) 10: 231 (36) 11: 253 (37) 12: 271 (54) 13: 282 (64) 14: 312 (85) 15: 317 (75) 16: 327 (78) 17: 334 (107) 18: 328 (69) 19: 333 (4) 20: 411 (2) 21: 187 (0) 22: 85 (0) 23: 44 (0) 24: 28 (0) 25: 18 (0) 26: 13 (0) 27: 6 (0) 28: 6 (0) 29: 4 (0) 30: 4 (0) 31: 2 (0) Chapter 17 would be what I call "the hump." I've been trying to whittle things down toward the middle, which is why it's so top-heavy at the moment. But all the chapters on Marcie & Gina Read CHYOA had attracted some attention, and lots of likes means more chapters to write...well, you know how that song goes.
Had over 300 notifications when I woke up this morning, so all of those numbers above are now slightly pointless.
Chapters written: 4,379 (+115) Chapters to be written (green): 60 (+5) Chapters to be written (orange): 636 (+46) Chapter 20 endings: 448 (+37) Highest orange chapter: 15*** Highest green chapter: 6** Deepest Chapter: 32 (+1) It's been a long month.
Stupid thing of the day: trying to see (generally speaking) how deep the story goes in terms of branches. So this is a count of the maximum depth for each branch. So far, every branch is at least 9 chapters deep. Every chapter 20 represents an ending. Anything beyond chapter 20 is an epilogue. 9: 21 10: 33 11: 40 12: 38 13: 24 14: 46 15: 35 16: 43 17: 32 18: 37 19: 43 20: 259 21: 127 22: 48 23: 23 24: 12 25: 10 26: 6 27: 1 28: 2 29: 0 30: 2 31: 1 32: 1 So...takeaways. There are 429 "unfinished" branches (i.e. they have less than 20 chapters, so they haven't reached an end). If you add in the 636 "second options" (orange chapters), that's over a thousand chapters to write... ...so, I've decided to implement a new rule. Every time I write a 2nd option (effectively creating a new branch), I'm going to write an ending to a <20 chapter branch. I'm going to start with the chapter 19's that haven't hit the threshold yet and work my way backward. That way we at least maintain branch parity, and can continue to work toward finishing existing branches as fast as continuing new ones.
File under "Oh shit what have I done," LLNO has actually edged into the #10 slot on the Top Sex Stories. Not sure how long that's going to last, but ah...wow.
Been off my writing game this last week because of having to focus on other things, but hoping to get back into the groove soon.
In other news, normality has been restored and LLNO has been knocked off the lowest rung of the Top Sex Stories.
Chapters written: 4,494 (+115) Chapters to be written (green): 51 (-9) Chapters to be written (orange): 668 (+32) Chapter 20 endings: 472 (+24) Highest orange chapter: 15** Highest green chapter: 7 Deepest Chapter: 32 Not quite as much progress as I was hoping, but still, progress. Give it another 1.5k chapters and I might be done...
We now have two branches that have reached 32 chapters long. Still primarily focused on filling out the branches that haven't hit their chapter 20 ending yet. Always surprising what takes off though; I get so little feedback it's always a bit of "well fuck, how do I follow this up?"
Chapters written: 4,609 (+115) Chapters to be written (green): 50 (-1) Chapters to be written (orange): 700 (+32) Chapter 20 endings: 499 (+27) Highest orange chapter: 15*** Highest green chapter: 5*** Deepest Chapter: 32 Again, not quite all I'd hoped to do this month - there were quite a few epilogues to write! But the story goes on, and some little progress is made. Very few comments again this month, and so a reminder that if you want the story to progress in a certain way, the best way to let me know that is through a comment. Otherwise we're down to my psychic powers, the phase of the moon, and how tight my underwear is on any given day.
