34,059
That's how many words I've written so far in the story of my Plucky Young Heroine; I'm embarrassed to admit how ridiculously long it's taken me to do that. As there are fellow writers who can see this little pissant journal, I won't bother repeating the litany of excuses that writers always offer up (yes, I know I could be working on the story instead of writing this pissant journal! Don't rub it in!).
I suppose it's just as well; the early ideas that would eventually grow into Tale of the Star Union first started to germinate way, way, way back in 1985. I even have some character drawings from those days: buy me a few drinks at a con and I might consider showing them to you...or maybe not. The art that I've commissioned and posted to the website is better by far.
I've noted with some amusement how a story morphs and evolves over time: ideas I thought were shite (but wrote down anyway), or too risqué, or something I was self-conscious about (but wrote down anyway) turn out to be somewhat less shite, or not as risqué as I first thought, or I Just Plain Don't Care Anymore if folks know I had that idea skulking around in the Dark and Eerie Place that is my head.
That last one there is a pretty recent addition, so I suppose it's a breakthrough of some kind: I was vacillating between putting in the vanilla version of a passage (which leaves a particular issue ambiguous) or the racy version (which makes that particular issue crystal clear)...and I decided to err on the side of clarity. Go me!
With any luck, this won't come back later and bite me on the ass...