Hello readers! I’m back with your monthly update for May 2023. It’ll probably be a short one, but it’s—I’m sorry, what’s that? We’re already over halfway through June? Huh.
Yes, I’m just about a month late on my usual progress update, but fear not! Progress has certainly been made in the meantime. When I last left you, Volume 5 had just hit the 142,000 word mark, and I was about to embark on a lovely honeymoon. I’m pleased to inform you that the honeymoon was indeed lovely, and I spent the week enjoying Disney World with my wife. I’m less pleased to inform you that I tested positive for COVID-19 on the day we returned from our trip which then knocked me out of commission for another week. This was my first tangle with this lingering plague of ours, and while I was lucky enough to avoid the worst of its symptoms, the brain fog was very real and very difficult to write with.
In spite of missing almost two weeks of writing, I’ve actually made significant progress over these past two months! Volume 5’s draft is just under 159,000 words: That’s shy of my measly 10K per month goal, but given that some of that was inaccessible to me, I’d say I’m right on track. Oddly enough, when I last checked in, I was wrapping up chapter 16, and I’m currently putting the cap on chapter 17. If you’ve done the mental math, you may have realized that this most recent chapter is a BEAST. It will most likely be the longest chapter I’ve ever written; I believe the current holder of that title is “Chapter 14: Answers” from Volume 4, and I’ve already surpassed that length by a few hundred words. Not to give anything away, but things are definitely getting spicy for Lux and company!
Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the draft chapters on Royal Road, you are most likely very familiar with just how spicy things are getting. The first half of chapter 16 went live yesterday, and the second half will wrap up on Wednesday the 21st. Yes, you read that right: I’ve almost fully exhausted my draft chapters, and the book is not yet complete. It’s a fate I had hoped to avoid, but one I knew would come to pass all the same. I’ll have chapter 17 finished and uploaded before the deadline of next Sunday, but after that, the regular uploads will come to an abrupt end. I will do my very best to write as quickly as I can and post the half-chapters in real time, but you’ll have to bear with me as I do.
As far as I can tell, I’m still sticking to my original outline in terms of chapter numbers. When 17 wraps up, I believe I have four left to write before the book is complete. 18 should be relatively straightforward, and then 19 through 21 will be a whirlwind of chaos and climax like we’ve never seen in the Restart Again series. There’s a slight chance I’ll have to add a 22nd chapter on the end there, but if I do, it’ll be a relatively short wrap-up style chapter. My regular timing says, at one chapter/month, that I’ll be finished in…October? I’d like to say it’ll be sooner than then, but only time will tell.
I know it’s been slow going, and I appreciate everyone who has stuck with me on the Restart Again journey so far. In an effort to keep progress moving on Volume 5, I’m going to end my recap here and dive right back into the draft! I’ll do my best to make a more timely blog post in July, but until then, stay safe out there, and as always, thanks for reading!
~Adam
