Anyone who actually kept track of the chapter progress page would have noticed a bit of a jump recently. Chapters 047 and 048 both jumped straight into proofreading, while chapter 049 spiked from basically nothing to over 3500 words. Just looking at the numbers, you'd think I did some serious writing. The truth is... something else.
Now, don't get me wrong, here. Me doing a bunch of writing is what made this happen. I'm not trying to lie here. But the statistics, just as a cause of what the meters I've established mean, do it for me. Not that that was ever my intention with them, and they still serve the purpose they were meant for.
I didn't technically finish writing two long chapters and nearly finished a third one. No, what happened was that chapter 047 got too long. It was in its current form going to break 4k words, which I don't want happening. Breaking it mildly might be fine, but this was going to run nearly 5k words in total. So, it had to be split. What was 047 became 047 and 048, and both of them, now in the proofreading/editing state, clock in at under 3000 words each. Because what is now 048 had to end at a very specific point, the point that 047 was planned to end on, so I couldn't just end 047 around the 4k word point because that would put that scene in the wrong place. So I split it into two and finished up both before I sent them off to proofreading.
And pretty much the same thing is going to happen to chapter 049. At ~3800 words, there are huge chunks missing, so it's going to get split once I figure out where to split it. I've got a bit more wiggle room here - none of those chapters need to end at a specific point - and what's in my current chapter plan labeled as chapter 050, formerly known as chapter 049, might get folded into what's going to be chapter 050 after the split.
In short, my initial chapter plan for this volume definitely ended up running away from me.
I've also done some work on something that's going to be important before the end of this volume that won't be much indicated by the progress bars, except that I have to get it nearly finished before the final chapter of the volume can be completed. So there's that.
Also, while several chapters are now in proofreading, that part of the process has hit a small snag in that my proofreader's wife recently gave birth to their child. So. Y'know. Not as much time for that.
Hope you're staying safe in whatever part of the world you're in!
/Kenny
