It's modular

Still alive.

And yes, I really do have a problem with my addiction to Plotting.
I actually get a happy tingle in my brain when I'm doing this lucid daydreaming thing, coming up with the plot breakdown of a new story, or coming up with the beats of a current story, ten chapters out (or more) from where things currently stand.
Last week, I spent DAYS detailing the backstory of a race of people that Taleene won't see for five chapters minimum, probably more like six or seven. I wrote up their tech and ships, I came up with an outline of how the initial scenes would go, I spent a day going even further ahead, roughing out events that happen in the five chapters past all of THAT.

And it was great; like I said, somehow the endorphins in my brain are wired to this stuff, and having plot and characters and bits of story obediently come into focus on command feels GOOD. Following that chain as it materializes out of nothing is an amazing thing to experience.

But it isn't writing.
It feels like I'm being productive when I do this, but that's me lying to myself.

Today I tried a new productivity trick I heard someone mention, something I'm calling 'Modular Time'. It's a super simple little thing designed to trick your brain into doing what you want it to do for specific chunks of time.
Annnnnd... day one was a success.
I sat down, I opened up the story, and I worked on what was in front of me, instead of dreaming about where it might go some day in the future.
Usually, on days when I have to work at my muggle job, I have trouble concentrating on story, especially as the day goes by and the real-world job looms closer, but today I was able to ignore that and get a good chunk of writing done.

That's a very good thing.
Of course, it's all about stringing good days together, so I'll keep working on it.

Oh, and also, I've changed my Patreon setup just very slightly, moving it from 'per chapter' which was always sort of annoyingly vague, to 'per 10,000 words', which I like a lot better. Not only is it more specific, but it gives me more freedom to post shorter chapters without needing to feel guilty about it or having to explain that this chapter isn't patron supported, but the next one is. This way, I'll just keep a running tally, and only push the 'support this one' button when it trips over the 10k mark.

Hope to have content for you all soon.
AJK