It's sweltering hot, I don't have AC, Bodyslyde is getting written but Heroine Recompile is on hold until this infernal heat breaks.

Thank you and drink lots of water.

In which I have to remind myself what I've written and where I have yet to go. As well as curse myself for having left so few notes to go off of, and bless myself for having played out this next development in my head periodically for months.

All that to say progress begins on Bodyslyde 8, and Stelle's story approaches its climax!

I first started Bodyslyde as an experiment: I wanted to write a concise story from start to finish. That didn't happen for a great many reasons but perhaps most aptly because I discovered a truth that haunts me as a writer: There's always more to write. I've voiced my admiration for the short, self-contained stories written by my contemporaries. I admire their ability to develop and present clear characters in an economy of words and usher them through their narrative arcs in sometimes as few as five thousand words. Brevity is not the soul of wit but the expression of one's ability to plan—the invisible work that isn't writing but shapes it, refines it, the multitude of words unwritten and that unsaid.

It's hard to write, and it's harder still not to write. Reflecting on that chapter length poll from the other week, I know I don't have to fret over how much I'm writing—I've been more-or-less landing in the comfort zone outside of exceptions such as Ardor Online 2, that beautiful behemoth. But I hold that small dissatisfactions with one's work are core to artistic progress—that nagging feeling you could do more, be better, try something new, fail, iterate, experiment.

Anyway, none of this necessarily relates to Bodyslyde 8, just me getting sucked into thoughts of craft since I've been reading an excellent book (Alex Pheby's Mordew) and excellent books always get me contemplative.

As always, thank you so much for supporting me, for reading, and for taking care of yourself.

(Heroine Recompile also starts this week but today is a Monday and I can only do so much on a Monday)

Because I realized I never uploaded them here, whoops.