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Well, it's finished. Finally. I don't think one chapter ever took me this long to write. The worst part is that I don't even feel really satisfied. Is it worth the wait? I don't really feel it is. But to quote the Jack Nicholson movie, it's probably "as good as it gets".
This chapter is a little longer than usual, so at least I have an objective reason (excuse) for taking longer to write it. Bad news: the concept for the next chapter tells me that one will be a little longer as well.
In my previous post I announced a two-weekly rhythm in posting new chapters of "Far from the fjords". Starting in April, I haven't been able to hold that promise. The problem is the Thanksgiving chapter (the next one). About four months ago I got stuck writing it, mostly because I changed my mind several times on what I wanted to do with it (and I still might change my mind some more). In the meantime I have been working on other stories that aren't ready for publication yet, I even have half of the chapter AFTER the Thanksgiving episode, but at the moment I can't publish anything because the next part is taking way longer than it should.
So, just letting you know that I'm still alive, I haven't stopped writing, and the story is not gonna be discontinued, but you will need to be patient.
Just to give faithful readers an idea of what to expect (not about the contents of the story, I'm keeping that a secret): So far there are 15 chapters finished, which means there are 10 more chapters coming. After that, I can't be sure, since I'm currently on a break from the story in order to write something else. The plan is to post a new chapter every two weeks. Only if the "smut level" of the last chapter is pretty low, i'll post the next one after one week: I sympatize with the people who need their fix. A two week interval between two chapters feels long, but I'm hoping it will enable me to get back to the story in time (meaning before I run out of material to post).
For Far from the Fjords, my latest story, I deviated from the usual way I locate a story. Generally I try to avoid specific place names. This time, it felt unnatural to keep places nameless. I didn't consciously choose Baltimore as a location. The choice is rather based on needing a specific kind of neighborhood, and Sandtown-Winchester was the first I found that fit the bill. I try to have any specific details about the locations real - there's plenty of research going into Baltimore, a city where I've never been - but I hope that potential readers from Baltimore will forgive me any mistakes I make. A few wrongs are included deliberately, because I needed them for the story.
Tomorrow I'll post chapter 4.
Currently I'm working on a new story, that I'll start posting once I'm reasonably sure that I'll actually be able to finish it. But I ran into a practical question, so advice is welcome, either as a reader or a fellow writer. How important is consistency in chapter length?
As I have it now, the shortest chapter so far would contain two scenes, that count a mere 1300 words combined. The longest chapter so far isn't finished yet, but I'm at 2800 words at this point and expect it to reach at least 3500, if not 4000 words. That's just one scene and originally I had planned to add the next scene to that chapter as well, because it makes sense in the chronology of the story. So worst case one chapter could be three to four times as long as another. Is that something that would bother readers?
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