I haven’t streamed in what felt like almost a month. Didn’t really bother making any shorts for my Hades playthrough or continued my playthrough of my new Elden Ring character. It’s not work or fatigue-related either. When I said I would be turning my attention to FireFrei, I meant it.
I spent from 7am to almost 4 or 5am editing from the Preface up to all of Chapter 6. As I had mentioned on Facebook and Instagram, the format is in double space and in poetic stanza form. It just so happens that it makes the reading experience smoother. Think about how many times you’ve picked up a book and a page was so tight and full of words that your head hurt or sometimes felt like you were fighting a tough boss from a video game. This new format I’m working with will help make the reading experience more relaxing.
The page count, not counting Chapter 7 or 8, is now already close to the size of FireButt when I first launched it. I felt deeply accomplished having dedicated almost a day’s worth of work just to do all that editing. In the process, I found myself only slightly tweaking the story — especially when there was a point in chapter 7 where I was going to have characters meet up with another character at a place in 20 minutes but when I googled the time it would take in real time to get there on foot, I had to change that part. Thankfully, the result ended up being a moment of respite where the team gets to breathe after the chaos they endured in chapters 1, 3, 4 and 6.
Now it comes down to plugging in everything I wrote in chapter 7. I just have to do that, then edit accordingly and tighten up whatever I wrote that may have ended up being impractical. Afterwards, I’ll continue writing chapter 8 to conclude the story, write my Special Thanks section, do art covers for the last 2 chapters, draw the art cover for the book itself and then it comes down to publishing.
Will there be a 3rd book for this ongoing storyline? The simple answer is yes. When re-reading and editing chapter 5, I realized that I wrote something so massive that would be deemed as a good reference point for a setup to conclude in chapter 8. In this way, it gives a sense of curiosity of what awaits in book 3.
But before I even run right into writing book 3, I will continue Drafts until I arrive to its 12th month of chapter writing and work on that.
I think the last time I’ve felt this rush of ambition to return to writing was back in my high school and college days. I may not be in my prime physical form per se but somehow my mental state for doing the things I genuinely enjoy have reached a certain point of sharpness that makes me feel alive again. Then again, it might be my cat Greyjoy being such a loving support — and the fact that George RR Martin still has yet to release Winds of Winter!