I feel much (much) better about the pacing, structure, and suspect pool based on your comments, @Unregistered and @Mistyleaf123 and this gave me a boost to keep pushing to get the story done. Thanks so much!
And damn @Unregistered your speculation about the events of Chapter 11 and Act 3 are freakin’ spot on.
It’s 9AM and my office is closed because of snow and ice, so I’m doing an experiment today to get a feel for whether I have the chops and discipline to ever create content on a more full-time basis.
Both of my girls are home, as is my barky schnauzer (below), so I’m not giving myself an easy scenario. I also didn’t start super early, as I enjoyed my coffee and my Pop Rocks on Sirius XM! How many quality words can I work in between 9AM and 4PM, with the distractions and interruptions that will ensue? Can I stay off Twitter? Netflix? Reddit? Will I avoid the temptation to crawl back into bed? We usually have to wake up at 5:30AM so the temptation is real. Will Oskar bark at every thing that walks, crawls, hops or scurries outside our windows? Will the girls enjoy a conflict-free morning or will they clash over who took who’s turtleneck?
Going into it, I would assume the follow grades:
A: 4K+ quality words and some Patreon tasks
B: 3K-4K quality words
C: 2K-3K quality words
D: under 2K quality words
Let’s see how the snow day goes! 
Good luck, and may the clothing conflicts be nonexistent today!
Either you are really hard on yourself or I’m just that lazy, but for me two thousand quality words in a day is an achievement to be proud of, not a failing grade. 
Is it even feasible to get 4K quality words in one day? (without copypasting or counting code?)
I mean, honestly, I think anyone creating content for games or books full-time would probably set a goal even higher than mine. There are lots of novelists that talk about getting up to 5k words a day, but yeah I think there’s general agreement that quality really suffers when pushing to certain levels.
I think I will hit my 4k quality words with very little copypasting. This story is more heavy on story than game, and there are chunks of prose with pretty limited code involved so I think that makes it a bit easier to get into a groove. I am using the CSIDE word count calculations, which automatically removes code from the wordcount so I don’t have to manually subtract that out.
I’m on track to hit my 4k, but it will be close. Back to writing! Oh and I had to take a break to help the girls prep Oskar to go outside in the snow.
So I get a B for the day. I’ll take it!
I wrote 3,675 words, which allowed me to finish, test, and upload Chapter 11, so it is LIVE.
The testing and general clean up took a good 30 minutes, so that’s baked into my day. Link is on Post #1.
Chapter 11 as a whole is 7,200 words, which brings the entire game up to just over 82,000 words. With three chapters to go, the story will require at least 100k words, perhaps a bit more.
I can’t really blame distractions. The girls were pretty low drama today, although I did have to blow dry Oskar from head to paw after his snow adventures. I’m finishing up Chapter 11 entries in my Talon City bible/spreadsheet and outlining Chapter 12 tonight.
Thanks so much! I’m still implementing the last part of @Unregistered 's catches too, but the cleaner I can make this the better.
That option to pick Concordia before reading. Just lmao. Truly the mastermind behind all this.
Alright I’ve spent the weekend focusing on my kiddos, my wife, and my pup. From now until dinner, it’s time to focus on talking birds.
I’m writing Chapter 12, which will be rather meaty and will feature the requisite “All is Lost” moment of the story. I’ve pushed through the middle, now it’s time to launch into Act 3.
And yes @Gapaot I was so tempted to insert some sort of author response to anyone picking that, but I decided restraint/no response was the better route to take. I know lots of folks hate the author scolding them for making a certain choice (even if this particular option is pretty ridiculous).
Stop making me fall for birds
How do you think I feel??
Certainly not cookoo
I have just caught up on this again, and I love how this is progressing! While I do think (should we choose to pursue it) our relationship with Concordia has started off rather quickly, I think it has evened out with the newer chapters.
As for what I think is happening behind the scenes… I am unsure if it’s a red herring or not, but I’m having suspicions with Ayvex. Is there any other bird in the city that can commit the crimes of the Night Hunter AND get away with it? So far, Ayvex is the only bird we know of that can reasonable kill three hawks all while being discrete about it. However, I can finding it difficult in thinking of why they would do it… but Ayvex, in these recent chapters, had appeared to have something on their mind. I think it’s possible, at the least. I also think it would be really cool and a great lead up, if we had to confront, and even fight, Ayvex at some point, IF this turns out to be true. Imagine facing down the bird that the story had repeatedly told us is an intimidating bird, one that far outclasses us in numerous ways? (I did not choose to romance Ayvex though, so I’m not sure how this would all work out in the end for those who have…)
That being said, I’m still not sure how much I believe in this theory, rather than how cool it would make for a final boss battle. So, I guess we will have to wait and see. The story as it is so far doesn’t seem to be pulling us into thinking it could be Ayvex (as many would a red herring), but also, it doesn’t seem to be drawing attention away from them as well (as many would the actual criminal). Another reason to second-guess this theory…
Now, to take a moment to gush over Concordia. I adore seeing the weird sort of hibernation-sleep that hummingbirds go into! And also, how our relationship has progressed to the point that she can easily fly right in front of our face without a shred of fear! And also also, the good cop/ bad cop we played with her when confronting the grouse about Galileo was cute as well <3
I am also eternally worried Ayvex may think this relationship unnatural, and take things into their own hands… they are a rather stubborn bird, after all…
Oh, speaking of which… I’m unsure why, I may have missed something (as I was reading quickly at times), but I was unable to use Galileo’s feather during the investigation, while returning to his last known location. I don’t recall losing it or if that’s even possible, but the option was still unavailable. In case this was unintentional, I thought I would bring it up. (Again, I WAS reading quickly, so if there was a snippet somewhere prior to that where we can lose the feather, I may have missed it.)
I look forward to future chapters!! ^-^
If I’m not mistaken, I believe it has already been confirmed that she’s not a baddy, given the fact that she’s a RO. I don’t think it would be nice for some people to romance her, only to have to go against her in the end. What a romantic waste it would be.
Yeah, that’s true, especially since she is an RO like you said. I’ll just have to keep wondering about it I guess XD
I’m giving TC all of my TLC in February. I’m so excited to dive back into this after giving Fun & Games all my mental energy in January. Hope to get a few thousand words done this weekend, and maybe my wife and I going birdwatching on Sunday will inspire a cool scene!
Looks like i am going to be enjoying myself being a bird sighs
Here we go again
Nothing wrong with embracing some spicy bird romance! (I keep telling myself this)
