I'm still chipping away at 53. At least the next time I work on it I'll get to the reunion which nails down another plot point on the way to the conclusion.

Unfortunately, it looks like I'll need an extra chapter. This will take me to chapter 58 being the last chapter.

I'm at the reunion and ticking off another plot point. I may finish 53 at the point I'm at though, it would be a good stopping point.

Not that I've reached this point I realize just how insane this bit sounds, it sounds like the Jerry Springer show. Hopefully it works better in the story than in the description.

Whitefonted for Beta Readers

She and he were lovers although it was a secret since it's taboo between their races. His sister tried to kill her, but she fled after accidentally killing his sister. Her companion also stole a priceless item of his though she was unaware of that at the time.

Then she finds out she's pregnant. She sends him a message via a third party. Later, the priceless item indicates that her child will be very important to his people.

While they are apart, he ends up engaged to another woman who he has a little history with though the engagement is being sped up mostly for political reasons. His fiance loves him and he has feelings for her though with caveats.

Her message ends up being intercepted by fiance's father and fiance puts two and two together. Eventually bringing her to his city under the false pretense of reunion. Fiance and his mother decide to have her killed but the future child presents a problem. His mother decides they should lock her away until the child is born, then kill her.

She escapes and is recaptured by the right people. He has her brought to her. He's already under a lot of pressure at the moment and the last thing he needs is another complication, and he knows nothing about the circumstances of his sister's death and the stolen item.

How long do you keep your false starts before you admit you're probably not going to work on them anymore? Cause last summer, I had what felt like this awesome idea, you know, but stuff got in the way, and now I'm not sure that it's any good...should I throw it out?

Call it deep archiving and stick in a sub/sub/sub folder. Or onto a CD. If you've got any doubt at all about throwing it out, keep it.

I'm not really short of space, but I don't think it's very good anymore either.

I don't ever throw anything out, erika. I think it's worth it to hold onto to stuff to look at later, even if it's only so you can say, "Wow, I'm so much better at this now."

Yeah, I tend to cringe when I look at some of my stuff from years ago. And it's not just "Wow, I'm so much better at this now," it's "I actually thought that was GOOD back then?"

Save it away if space isn't an issue. Maybe you might want to use the idea again, if not the prose.

If nothing else, there may be a phrase that doesn't completely suck that you can use again.

Well, I've got 53 pretty much done, but the end is contingent on 54 and 54 has been trouble. I had a 54, but my wife looked at it and thought it didn't work, the characters went too far too fast. She's totally right, I tried to cram too much into too few words. I working on a slower version now which actually works out as being more dramatic since issues aren't getting solved two paragraphs later.

This brings me back to the dilemma, go big or go small. If I don't compress things in this part and don't compress the conclusion, I'm looking at 140k wc. I also have a subplot that is underdeveloped, and I've been chided for too little detail about the setting and characters (I have to be careful about that, too much detail is not considered a good thing by and large). I could add carefully sprinkle in bits to give the characters a bit more history too.

If I go big, I've got two books, likely cut at chapter 34. The end of 34 with an extra chapter to tie things up is a natural, if unexpected, ending. I think I'd have about two 90-100k books that way.

If I go small, I need to cut, cut , cut. Take a big part out of the beginning, remove the Savin & Rainier characters, remove the journey back to he Imperial City, cut a few more minor scenes, and maybe have a portion of the story that is played out be background. I can't help but think that will not be good for the story.