Hello! Not sure if anyone will actually see this, since Vulpine's been dead for so long - but, if you happen to, then I'm glad you stopped by!
Over the past 2ish years, I've been getting a lot of concerned PMs asking if I'm alive and such, and when I'll be able to start posting Vulpine (or anything else) again. My answer to the first is generally satisfactory (yep, I'm alive), but my answer to the second has been less so, for a variety of reasons. I've actually been doing quite a bit the two years or so - it's just most of it hasn't been Vulpine related. I'll give you a quick summation of what I've been up to, and hopefully you'll understand why.
(Basically, I wrote 4 novels.)
What The Hell Happened
June 2014 - planned on getting my shiz together to finish Vulpine ASAP. Even wrote one chapter (the one I just posted) and started another (Faun's, obvs). Then...
Then.........
Then halfway through June, I was brutally attacked by an idea that would not, could not, be banished, no matter how hard I tried. I didn't want to think about it. I certainly didn't want to write about it. It was completely different from everything I usually wrote (Sci-fi! With almost no humans to speak of!) and really self-indulgent for a variety of reasons and just generally felt like something I didn't want to pursue. But it wouldn't leave, and in July there was this "Camp NaNo" thing (a summer version of NaNoWriMo) that I wanted to try. So I said "heck with it," and went for it, and....wrote 125k in a month. Yeah, that's a lot. Unfortunately, the story wasn't quite over.
August - September 2014 - Polished off July's story (entitled "Stay Quiet, Stay Low," but we'll call it SQSL) with another 25k. But then it turned out that this was just the first arc of three. The second was pretty short (22k), but that ended up being a huge problem, because I blew through it in two frantic days, and then had to scramble to come up with a concrete plan for the third. So I wrote the third arc (let's call it SQSL2)...and revised...and wrote...and revised...and wrote...etc., on an on for months, until I was really frigging burnt out on the whole thing.
October 2014: Work on SQSL2 had slowed to a crawl, but I still wasn't ready for Vulpine yet. I floundered around for a bit, until - surprise surprise - another story plot hit me like a truck halfway through the month, conveniently just in time for November, i.e. NaNoWriMo. At this point, I was resigned to my fate, so I just gave in.
November 2014: I wrote 88k of what would eventually become a 203k novel (entitled "Corona").
December 2014-March 2015: I bounced between working on SQSL2 and Corona. Mostly Corona, because SQSL was giving me such a headache. I finished Corona on March 2nd, I think? And then I kinda let things slide for awhile.
April 2015: Decided to get off my butt and finish SQSL2; Camp NaNo is held in both April and July, so I decided to use SQSL2 for this one. I wrote 78k.
May 2015: Still working on SQSL2, albeit slowly. My birthday (the 26th) reminded me of Vulpine (since the last chapter had been posted on the 26th the year before), and I started musing on it a bit, but was too busy to do much else.
June 2015: Still working on SQSL2. Still thinking on Vulpine. Seeing as July's Camp NaNo was coming up, I figured I might as well try to finish Vulpine then.
July 2015: Finished SQSL2 on the first, meaning that it took exactly a year to write SQSL & SQSL2. In total, the third arc ended up being ~160k, plus the 22/28 from the second arc (it varied because I kept switching where the second arc technically ended. I think it's 28 rn), for a total of 188k for SQSL2. I was pretty excited, but I couldn't stop, since it was Camp time. I plunged into Vulpine. Halfway through, however, I realized I was rushing certain events way more than was warranted. I thought I was about to start writing the final four chapters - instead, it quickly became apparent I needed another cycle of 4 instead - that is, I thought Vulpine had 12 more chaps in it, but it really had 16. That bummed me out, and I had to scramble to plan for the extras, which really bogged things down. I ended up writing just 54k.
August 2015: Struggled on w/ Vulpine, but it was a real slog. I kinda gave up at around 68k (total, meaning counting July's wordcount; it was all in one big file) and decided I'd get back to it again when I was ready.
September-October 2015: Nothing in particular, mostly focusing on school. Basically had huge writer's block, felt no real urge to write anything. Sucked.
November 2015: Decided to return to NORTH, my NaNo from 2013. Wrote 50k. Wasn't really feeling it, still, and my semester got stupidly hard very, very quickly. This whole month was honestly pretty miserable.
December 2015 - March 2016: Again, basically no writing. This time, though, I had a new excuse: my honors thesis, a two-semester-long project. I had originally decided to do a novel as part of my thesis (stupid, stupid), but found coming up with an idea was really, really hard. Basically, I procrastinated about thinking about it because it was scary, and because I procrastinated, it got even scarier. Eventually, I had to face facts at the end of March. I decided to attempt it for April's Camp. Before camp started, I wrote about 8k.
April 2016: Holy shit, was this month ever rough. I wrote 80k for my thesis, staying on campus for four consecutive weeks (my parents were sad). But, in the end, I scraped by, finishing my thesis novel - "Apiarchy" - just in time. Then, I found myself still in the habit of writing. I wanted to write more, so I didn't lose my momentum. But what could I possibly write about now?
May 2016: Vulpine time. I went back and read all the stuff I wrote since I'd last updated. Then I wrote a little, finishing off Riven's penultimate chapter (it had been one scene short of being completed when I'd last stopped). Then I planned some more. Then I went back and read everything I had posted. Then I read everything I hadn't posted again. Then I decided to get serious.
Then, I decided to update with the chapter I'd written nearly two years ago. And here we are.
So, to sum up: I wrote 4 novels, clocking in at 150k, 188k, 203k, and 88k, and got some work done on other projects (68k for Vulpine, 50k for NORTH), totaling to a whopping 747,000 words in the last two years. I also outlined a bunch of other projects that might or might not ever see the light of day - only time will tell.
What The Hell Comes Next
Right now, my plans are somewhat fluid. Here's what I can tell you: I intend to post the chapters I've written so far. I think there's 10 or 11 of them, though I may need to count again. There's another chapter that's like two scenes from being done. And then, there are the last four + the epilogue, which all still need to be written. That's what I'd like to get done in May.
After Vulpine's done...I'm not sure. SQSL, SQSL2, and Corona all still need some work. SQSL is mostly okay, but SQSL2 needs some love, and Corona will probably undergo heavy, heavy revisions at some point. Even when that's all done, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable posting them anywhere. We'll see. I'd also like to finish NORTH at some point, but who knows when/if that'll happen (or if it'll be posted when I do).
I also have a bunch of other stories mapped out (I have so many Excel sheets w/ timelines, you have no idea), but again, I don't know when I'll get around to those. A lot's up in the air right now.
But I can tell you one thing - if humanly possible, Vulpine will be finished within the next few months. I'll probably continue updating once a week (Sunday or Monday), but if I finish Vulpine with time to spare, I might start updating twice a week, or something. We'll see.
(Of course, if no one's still paying any attention to it, it doesn't really matter - but it's kinda a question of personal pride, at this point.)
So, yeah. Hopefully you all understand where I've been, now, and what's going to happen going forward. My hands are kinda tired at this point (and I have finals to study for, unfortunately), so that's that. See you all on the flip side! :)
