Leto Armitage: Blog

Chapter 18 is in the wild now, sighting report it to be sneaky and hiding in the underbrush. Seriously though, it's out if you want to read it. Feedback is always welcome. Some may not like the minimal sex in it but it is a romance and sometimes sex gets a little pushed to the side.

I don't think there is a conflict between a sex heavy story and it being a romance. Sex can be romantic but not all romance will be sexual and it wasn't in this chapter. Even very dirty sex can be romantic when it is a part of your intimacy with another person. The three main characters do use sex as a form of intimacy as well as being healthy horny people so sex is sometimes just a release though between them they always have love in the mix.

The next chapter though ... probably more sex as the honeymoon continues. :) I'm working on it today, hopefully out in the sun if the weather allows.

I'm nearly there with chapter 18. After most of a week with no writing, I sat down Sunday and sitting on my deck with a pot of mint tea wrote and wrote. It's not a long chapter but still needs a bit of work. The first scene probably needs a little punching up but it's the last scene I'm still unhappy with. I think it needs to be lengthed and give the characters a chance to shine a bit more. A significant moment happens and I don't want it to pass too quickly.

Unrelated to The Pool Girl I also got some writing done on a non-erotica project so I'm looking forward to working on that as time allows.

I feel like this chapter has been a bit of a marathon. Aside from the issues I previously mentioned there was a section I rewrote at least four times, maybe five or six. And then somewhere along the way, I realized that not only had Saturday alone become a whole chapter but a sizeable one at that.

In editing today I cut a fair bit that was just filler and still ended up at 11,900 words which is fairly meaty (in my opinion). I'm going to try to do another pass tomorrow morning and then send it off to Pertinax for proofing, who is beyond kind how he puts up with my links to the chapters out of the blue randomly.

I've come to be happy about the length though it's not what I first envisioned. It is the honeymoon for our protagonists and I want them to enjoy it.

Well, this week has been ... a week. I live in the United States and obviously we are in the midst of a lot of social upheavals right now and many other nations are watching us. I have strong feelings about it but Storiesonline isn't the platform for that. You can find me on social media if you want my opinions on that. (seems unlikely that you do) Then I got hit with three separate small health issues at once. I'm over them now but I feel like Wil E. Coyote with the truck having run him over.

How it impacted writing The Pool Girl is that I really didn't feel like writing for a week. On Sunday I found some desire to write again and am well into chapter 17 at this point. I expect to have it done by the real world weekend. I had expected the fictional weekend to be condensed into the chapter but right now there was enough to cover just on Friday that it's the full chapter. I think it's a fun light-hearted chapter for the most part with one significant moment and found it, oddly, good therapy writing it in the bleakness of the world.

I look forward to putting it out.

I'm taking another pass over chapter 16 today and sending it to my proofer. It might be my longest chapter yet. As much as we try, we don't catch everything so I appreciate the feedback I get about passages that are awkward or unclear. At some point, I am going to do a big reupload of chapters to update the online version with all the fixes. I think it will be at the end of summer in the storyline which is probably just a few chapters away. I will have to figure out how to do sections. The next section will be Senior Year, part 1 (titles may change, that's just how I'm thinking of it) and while I only have a few barebone plans for what will happen there I do already know how it will end which will lead to Senior Year part 2. It will be a big shift in the lives of the three protagonists. My current plan is to end the story with Melissa's and Lavi's graduation.

I say the current plan because I reserve the right to change my mind and keep going if I want at that point though if I do I think I will change the title and start it as a new work. It won't be the Pool Girl anymore, too much will have changed. If it does end at graduation there will be an epilogue. I like to see in the future of stories as a reader, I like to know what happened long term so I'm going to provide that for my own.

As I go side stories have been popping up in my head. I'm not writing them as I fear it will be a distraction but what I may do is write them out after the main story is done. So, I'm taking notes as I go for those side stories. Anyway, I need to get back to reviewing and I hope everyone is having a good weekend and for those in the U.S. I hope you have a nice Memorial Day.