My fiction has a tendency to expand beyond my original intentions, particularly when I do lengthy multi-part series. Inevitably, as I go along, I find the need to add characters and scenes that had not occurred to me early in the process.
Or I find that writing certain scenes out takes many more words than I expected.
That’s what’s happened as the defecation began hitting the rotary oscillator in “The Gathering Storm” in chapter 23. Now, there have been any manner of crises and conflicts throughout the series so far. Hell, the series started off very early with Janus sending more than a dozen professional killers to eliminate Query for as-yet-unknown reasons and the resulting carnage was dramatic. But a lot of the series has been introducing characters and defining their personalities. My readers thus far seem pleased with the pacing and the mix of dialogue, exposition, angst, humor and violence. But I’ve known there were certain key things that I’ve been working toward.
Chapter 23 was one of those key points, and it is a huge turning point in the series. Or catalyst. Or something. You’ll see later. Of course, I didn’t realize it would take so many chapters to get there, but we finally did.
Now, I figured that two chapters would be enough to cover the flurry of events that begin in chapter 23 so that I could move on to the further plot developments and such as we work toward the conclusion to the series (probably by chapter 30-something, I guess, though I won’t be surprised it it enters the 40s, I suppose). Early on in chapter 23 I realized this wouldn’t be possible, and that it would take three chapters. Then, after about 3,400 words of writing for chapter 25, I realized three wasn’t going to be enough, so the current events will continue through chapter 26.
Sure, I could pack everything into one chapter, but considering this is a blog you’re reading chapters on, I try not to exceed 5,000 words on major stories and series chapters, and try to keep my stand-alone stories under 3,000 words when I can.
In any case, what it means is that after chapter 25 gets posted either today or tomorrow, you’ll have one more chapter to look forward to that will prominently feature Query in ass-kicking mode and Janus losing his shit over it.