True to form, this update is a few days late, but it doesn’t make the updates any less real.

As of today, I won NaNoWriMo with 52K and the Demon Book is standing at 89K in total. Plotwise, we are making a bit of progress and I’m close to getting everyone in this damn city and meeting each other, which I’ve never been able to do before in the previous seven drafts. What happens after that is anyone’s guess as I am a pantser and the rest of the book is basically no man’s land. 

I have a vague idea of how this book ends (spoiler: everyone is probably going to die but that’s true for all my books) and I have a vague important plot point that is supposed to happen by the middle of the book but have no idea how I get from where we are now to the mid-point to the conclusion so the next few months are going to be a lot of fun.

Queer Croc WIP Update

Good news first: my editor likes my replot idea for the Queer Croc WIP. Bad news: I have no idea when I’m going to start the rewrites because I’m on the cusp of exploring new territory with the Demon book and I don’t want to lose my momentum.

My plan right now is to keep writing the Demon book until the week of the 19th, when my Christmas break kicks in and then use my Christmas break to fury rewrite the Queer Croc WIP so I can send it to betas in January and hopefully get it back to my editor by March? Maybe…

But the reason I want to do it that way is because I think I can get the Demon book to the point where it merges with the Queer Croc WIP plot and so my mind will hopefully be in the Queer Croc WIP mindset and make the rewrite easier. And I can use the second half of the Queer Croc WIP to map out the rest of the Demon book. At least, that’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes…

Demon Book Updates

In terms of where I’m at in the Demon Book, I finished the Ecaterina and Demons sections. I’m still working through the Demon’s relationships with each other and actually went back last night to rework the relationship between Rezan and Danijela, the Demon king and queen. I really want Rezan’s relationship with Danijela to be one of Rezan: “I’ll destroy the world! But only with my wife’s permission.” Like he has his own goals and he will fight for them and argue with Danijela about why his goals are possible and worth risking everything for, but at the end of the day he’ll do whatever she wants. 

I’m still working on how to make that clear in the book, but also allow them to be very opinionated, stubborn, and powerful beings that have their own agency and goals. Thus, Rezan’s choice to do as Danijela says is a purposeful, conscious choice to demonstrate his love and devotion to her. Likewise, Danijela will always try to find a compromise between their goals then flat out ask Rezan to give up on a dream, but is also aware that the ability to say no to Rezan is a privilege and responsibility that no being in the entire universe has ever had (especially if Rezan is truly who he says he is) and it both terrifies her and comforts her. So it’s complicated, but I’m working on it. 

After Ecaterina, comes Rashid the trans bisexual disaster who is also a anxious, suicidal, depressed, prince who married the assassin his now deceased mother hired to kill him and is fucking a Demon lord who reports to Rezan. So in short, a reckless man with one brain cell who is about to become king of an incredibly volatile region that is trapped between three-four massive continental powers who are keen on claiming the region as their own.

In all seriousness, Rashid is one of my favorite characters I’ve ever created and I’m super excited to develop his arc further. He’s actually the only character who’s plot was preserved mostly intact from the previous drafts so I’ve been able to write this section pretty quickly. Just two more chapters and then new plot territory. However, since I know Rashid, Nodira, his assassin wife, and Turar, his Demon lover, so well, these characters aren’t being introduced to the reader so much as they’re just jumping head first into their arcs and trusting everyone to know all about the developmental work I did during the seven other drafts. So I think I’ll have to go back and rework that first “intro” chapter for these characters, but also feel that a fast moving plot with little context is a perfect way to intro the disaster king that is Rashid. 

Rashid’s relationship with Turar progresses super fast in these few chapters and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I really can’t drag out their relationship too much because I want to jump back to the main plot, but also don’t know how believable their relationship is right now. So I’ll have to slow this down a little during the rewrite (where I’ll be able to rework the preceding sections and that will hopefully cut my word count in half and give me a little bit of room to slow down Rashid’s plot a little). OR I’ll keep the current pacing because honestly Rashid falling head over heels in love with a Demon within the space of what feels like a day and then fucking him in a forest clearing only a short distance from his wife’s camp makes perfect sense for him. So we’ll see.

Anyway, that’s how my November went. How was your November? Do you have plans for December?