I’ve been told by people that it’s impressive how much progress I’m making in these projects I’m doing. I appreciate their appreciation, and prefer that I’m actually getting things done instead of aspiring to them. But I, as the author, know better. Void is a pain in my butt.

Because I’ve been writing it for a long time. It started as a short story under a different name. I hated it and never published it, not even to Medium, where it could fester quietly forever. But I liked the premise of it. So I reworked it, leaving out some of the obvious alien jump-scares and the uninteresting characters. I switched it over to focus on the single protagonist, so the audience sees everything as he sees them. That way I could draw out the mystery and paint as I went along.

But now I’ve got to make the details work, and that’s the part that always slows me down. I’ve got to write the third act, in totality, and I have to have it done within the month, because the whole third act – about three chapters – is going into the next issue of Unnamed Journal.

So this is going to get done. It’s going to happen. I’m not going to miss this deadline. I’ve hit all the deadlines I’ve set for myself this year. This will be no exception. I don’t have to actually write that much. I’ve already started the sixth chapter.

I sound convincing, don’t I?