Mobius Progress - August 2023

Greetings, readers, from the 21st century!

Mobius is progressing as planned, with 4 more chapters in the bag. The most recent scene was a turning point, its events propelling the plot from Act II into Act III. I’ve been fantasizing about this scene for years, and it was a delight to finally get to write it.

Currently, I’m getting out of a bit of a slump. I wrote three of this off-month’s chapters in July, and only managed to get one more in August. Not to worry, this is normal for me and my writing process. I spent the past week catching up on everything I’d fallen behind on, and now I’m ready to write again! On the bright side, I was able to write 4 chapters anyway, so my average productivity continues to improve.

Here at the turn of the second act, I’m starting to see ways in which this draft is weak. In particular, my secondary characters need to be developed earlier to give the present scenes greater impact. This is not something I can quickly go back and change, but must be woven in through the whole story, scenes added or rewritten. No surprise, that was one of the reasons I decided to plunge ahead and get the draft done. The best way for me to know how to prepare for a scene is to write the scene. Building everything up properly is a task for draft 2.

This month, I’ll aim for 4 chapters again. I may be able to shoot for 5 soon, but 4 has been sustainable through the ups and downs, and will set me on track to finish by December, giving me time to analyze and prepare for the second draft.

I’ll be back with another update in September!