(Show-runner's Notes) Progress Reports

15 March

So, here is our first batch of chapters for Week 2. Both a little bit larger and a little bit smaller than usual. 6 chapters, but all a smidgen smaller. I somehow ended up with 3 chapters in the big file that were each 8-9 pages and felt they were complete enough to push. I also got an updated pair of character sheet pages up. We'll see how long it takes for me to make them outdated.

Finally, I moved all of the old progress reports to a subsequent chapter. The list of them on here was getting a little long in the tooth.

22 March

I'm splitting Day 9 content into 2 more chunks, as the "not dream sequence" parts ended up being around 35 pages in the big file. Total big file length is currently at 294 pages, for those keeping score. Daytime for Day 9 is now up (4 chapters). I'll push the Date Night stuff either Tuesday or next weekend, depending on how far along I get with Day 10 stuff by tomorrow. Either way, I'll have the prepared class transformation pages and dice rolls for the dumb Level 1 boss fight up when I push the Date Night chapters.

Already feeling the weird time crawl that happens as these stories progress starting to set in, between adding new transformation wrinkles to the story and adding characters into the mix. Day 9's content felt like twice the length of the average Week 1 day.

Hopefully, some of y'all are still enjoying my rambling.

25 March

Sooooo, another change of plans. First, a little background. I try to post the chapters and do a formatting check a couple of days ahead of actually pushing a round of publication out. This helps me give it a couple of extra scroll throughs to catch any errant formatting breaks (I still miss them every once in a while). I prepped the chapters for today's planned chuck and saw that it was a total of 10 chapters (3 actual chapters, 7 side chapters). I agreed that last time I pushed 10 chapters at once, it was too much; granted, this time a lot of the excess is in skip-able character sheets, but still too much at once is too much at once. Thus, I'm splitting the split. As soon as I am done posting this note, I'll release the first chunk (1 real chapter, 4 side chapters). Sometime Wednesday or Thursday, I'll release the second chunk (2 real chapters, 3 side chapters).

Let me get to releasing things, then time to work on something I won't need written until the end of "Week 2" (because that's where the motivation to write currently is). I'll definitely have the expected chunk released sometime over the weekend (just need to write one more scene to be done with the planned publication).

29 March

Day 10 daytime chapters just published (3 real chapters, plus a side thing). Again, the side thing is a low-key poll. Looking for feedback on something. Details here. When/if you got time, give it a comment.

Time to make some lunch, then do some writing for next week.

5 April

Ooops. Forgot to update this. Josie Date chapters up (3 real chapters, plus a side thing again). As far as last week's side thing is concerned, I hit the point where I could start writing the sections that need that decision to be made. I'm writing around it, for now, but will like to have that decision finalized soon. I'll give it a couple of more days, then come to a conclusion. If you got a comment about it, check the link above. Thanks!

12 April

Next chunk just published (3 real chapters, 1 side-ish thing, 3 side things). The side-ish thing deserves a little addressing. I'm opening up the DMs for fan mail as it were. As mentioned in the in-story announcement, the loose due date is on 26 Apr (so, in about 2 weeks) in anticipation of being used post meeting/pre-date on Day 13. I have the rest of Day 11 written in at least a rough draft as of last night, so I would like to have fan mail ready in time for me to write that chunk. So, I have 2 weeks to write Day 12, then will fill remaining writing time on side stuff (since I am open to the possibility that your letters will have an impact on character actions). Thanks in advance.

18 April

This week's chunk just got published (4 chapters). I took the week off from work (and even then, I going to have some vacation time expire on me), so I got a huge chunk of writing done. Day 12 is complete (at least in rough draft form), featuring the mid-week optional challenge. And, just like last mid-week challenge day, I made writing the day immediately after it extremely difficult. So here is the upcoming audience participation summary:

• Fan Mail DMs are still open, ideally submitted by this time next week.
• Next week is the mid-week optional challenge publication, which will have 2 transformation votes for your consideration.

In the meantime, I'm going to work on things I don't think the above participation events will have an effect on (parts of Day 13 before the participation events would occur, some scenes in Day 14, pre-writing some challenge stuff [soooo many transformations need to be fleshed out]).

25 April

Mostly done with this week's publication push (4 chapters, plus 2 side things). I still need to make the polls. The poll chapter will be up shortly after I get this update posted. So, no fan mail (which, fair enough; I mean I haven't submitted any fan mail on any of the other branches yet). Next slot I could squeeze it in is probably Day 15, if there are any takers. Still means I have to figure out what to do with everyone for Day 13, but that is a problem for post-vote tallying me.

Some fun facts: My big file hit 420 pages on Apr 20th, which is fun (currently at 427, but some of that is outline sketch filler). Two, by the time we get to the Round 2 transformations, I'll have 75 of 'em ready to go (a good handful of which won't see the light of day, but still...)

Polls will be up until Tuesday night. Vote away.

3 May

This week's batch of chapters have just finished being pushed (the expected 4 chapters, plus 1 side thing). I do have the vote results written, but I try to keep each chapter about 5 big file pages long and adding them to the meeting chapter would have really pushed it. So, patience, por favor.

Pre-writing updates: I got just a scene and a fifth left to write for Day 13 and Day 14 is about halfway done. I might get to the point where I do the multiple release pushes a week during the challenge section again. We'll see if the writing pace keeps up. Big file is up to 454 pages.

9 May

This week's stuff has been up for a bit by now (5 chapters this week, plus the side thing); I distracted myself by doing an editing pass through the parts of Day 14 I already have written. Just 2 scenes left for Day 14 (unless I add something else to it). Then time to start on Day 15 (the day before Challenge 2) in earnest. Fun note: I had 2 dice rolling events in a row where a bad roll ended up with me going to some unexpected places. Those unexpected results are at the end of the night, so look forward to a couple of curve balls. Big file up to 470 pages.

Day 13 turned out shorter than usual for a Week 2 day, so I released it all at once. Maybe it has to do with me only really having 2 big story line threads throughout the day instead of the usual 3? Something to think about as bonds start to form.

17 May

Hey! I hit a 100 chapters in the main line today! Thanks for putting up with my nonsense.

I just published the first chunk for this week's stuff. Like with last week, Day 14 is a little short (total of 6 main chapters instead of the usual 8-9). So, I decided to push the whole Day out in one week, but, since 6 chapters might be a little much all at once, I'm planning on pushing the evening chapters on Tuesday. Day 15 is looking to be the expected length. At least the daytime part definitely is 4 chapters. Still writing the date part. At this rate, Challenge 2 starts at the beginning of June.

Once again, thanks for continuing to read.

24 May

Next batch of chapters just put up (4 chapters, plus 3 side things). Depending on how far along I get in writing the Challenge chapters over the long weekend (as of right now, I'm just starting to write the challenge proper), I may push the rest of Day 15 out on Tuesday. Kinda need to see some poll results before I can finish writing the challenge. We'll see.

27 May

Yup, I needed to push the rest of Day 15 out today, as I finished writing basically everything I could on Sunday. 3 chapters, plus 2 side things for your enjoyment. Challenge chapters start on Friday. Here is the plan for the rest of Week 2 (subject to change):

• This Friday -Challenge intro chapters, plus the first set of polls. Got the expected Best Girl poll, the not necessarily expected but often used Best Date of the Round poll, and 2 more surprise polls scheduled.
• Next Week (6 June or so) - Challenge activity chapters, which are currently as complete as I can get them (need to see the results of the surprise polls before they are truly done). The challenge will once again be resolved via an audience poll (though this time without the judging panel conceit).
• Week After That (13 June or so) - Challenge result chapters, plus transformation votes.
• Then the Week After That (20 June or so) - Final clean up / aftermath chapters.

Then we start Week 3. I'll once again shunt all of these notes to a separate chapter once we hit Week 3 proper.

30 May

First challenge day batch of chapters just posted (4 chapters, 1 side thing). The side thing in question is the first set of polls. Pushed this out a little earlier than usual to give the polls more time. I'm kind of stuck waiting for some results before I can get back to writing. Go vote!

3 June

Next batch of challenge day chapters just hit (no side things this time), featuring a smidgen over half of the challenge submissions, someone getting a promotion, and a new hotel hire. I was able to write everything for this week once voting settled down. The rest of the challenge submissions will be posted Friday with the challenge activity poll.

6 June

Promised batch of challenge submissions, plus some poll results just released. Challenge submission poll up in the side thing. Definitely not going to do an immediate push to publish a chunk after the poll closes this time. The post poll result writing is considerably more for this one than the "fill in the couple of highlighted bits with the appropriate number" writing I had to do last week. I'm slightly ahead of schedule from the prediction above anyways.

Enjoy and go vote!

13 June

Transformation chapter (with the side thing with so many polls [okay, only 12 polls, but that still feels like a lot]) are up at this point. Depending on how quickly I feel like I can write the results chapters, I may or may not push the challenge evening chapters out on Tuesday. We'll see. This is another one of those "I'm stuck waiting for results before getting back to writing" things. I have some more pre-meeting morning things to hit, but otherwise, I'll just be obsessively refreshing my StrawPoll Dashboard.

Enjoy and go vote! Some of you already had my the time I have this update posted.