Krista

Goodness me, 100k for a chapter? That's a whole novel. 24k is a big fella for a chapter, but some of the chapters that I broke up into parts were hovering around 20k at one time. The last chapter does have a singular theme so I can't split it... but yeah, it is my average of around 3 - 5 chapters... less with this story since none of the chapters hit 5k with this story... but still. It will be an undertaking at 24k, I'm a little worried about the size of it.

A five part Epilogue worked for, "The Best Year..." Or rather no one called me out for it and let me get away with it anyway. But come on now, you can't call them epilogues if there's half a dozen epilogues, surely.

Shew... y'all are making me tread dangerously right now. LOL I can't say much in the off-chance I spoil about 30k worth of writing. Behave yourselves. You know I like to ramble. I backspaced the response to this comment three times.

Montages. I struggle with those. I want to live bogged down in a lot of retrospective writing trying to account for all the lost time. That's why I don't do massive time jumps either. I'm a very linear writer... that's why we're only a month into the timeline. Mind you, I could and probably should've sped up the pace a bit... this story moved backwards, well documented. *whistles innocently* I guess I could force myself to stay within themes with the montages and just have you guys realize that Joel is alive and kicking and nothing traumatizing happened... since he's wherever I take him in the montages. Not sure if I'd do it well enough to bother though.

The last chapter is 24k words, which if I went by my 5k chapter count... mind you I don't think I did much of that during this story.. that's a lot. The second to last chapter is just under 7400 words I think. No loooong epilogue with this one though.

Nope. There's about a.. four day time jump. I tend to not do long time jumps in my writing.

There are only two more chapters... written. That is a true statement to make. Yes. I reread the last chapter tonight after I finished the second to last chapter. I had to delete some, rework the wording in other spots, etc. The ending pulled on me so hard it wasn't funny. I didn't expect it to, because I've read the ending chapter multiple times, it isn't new to me. I honestly don't know. It is 24k words though, there's that. I trimmed about 1200 words off it too.

Oh yikes. the baseball season. That doesn't even start until early Spring. I'd have to write through the rest of the semester, into Christmas Break, and then half of the next semester just to get to it. We're just a month in! A MONTH. You ask too much.

I remember a lot of A-list actors outright turning down the role to play them. Jake and Heath were the only ones to say yes. It wasn't mainstream for mainstream actors to play roles such as these. They're worried about the fallout, backlash, and if they've played gay in the past like Matt Damon, they didn't want people thinking they're taking roles that either represents them or being type cast to only play such roles. So, for the times it was a barrier breaking film. But yeah, there was a lot of No's for the roles. Which is fine. It was a one and done watch for me. I liked it for what it was, I thought it was pretty and gritty. I thought the acting of Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, and Heath Ledger were great. Jake fell flat for me... to be honest. A lot of films are one and done for me though, so that's not a knock against the film.

They have cute butts though.

A very cute, very blond, and very female barrel racing star also on the local rodeo/western show scene. Sorry to break hearts... lol.

Pucks are not balls. It barely shows them playing hockey. They gloss over and skip most of that stuff. They do have awful uniforms, but I guess it is for practical use and not eye appreciation. What you said about them not ticking anything off for you, there's the most glaring issue, because they show a lot of themselves on the show. Well the backside of themselves as far as what's NSFW. That's the thing I don't agree with though. I will not watch anything that I don't like, no matter what it is. People were telling us that we had to watch and appreciate "Boys!" for example. That film sucked. It was supposed to be this groundbreaking romantic comedy featuring an all gay cast, writer... and be completely for the 'gays.' More straight people went to watch that film, by the way. I watched it. I hated it. I thought it boring, shallow, and stupid to be fair. Overcompensating is the same breath though. Hated it too. Both very gay and both trash. Will and Grace was all about a heterosexual audience. Queer as Folk the UK version is better than the American one. I said what I said. But yeah, it is all subjective anyway. We all like different things.

Jarring as in, you're watching them get drafted, then they're in the off season. Then they're fighting and not talking for a year, not answering texts and calls. The pacing is fast, we're already well into what, their fourth or so season? It doesn't 'feel' like much time has passed, but they've had so much time pass without much to say for it aside from MVP announcement, cup celebrations, and poking at one another for losing. The pacing is the most disliked aspect of the show. They were condensing too much into the five episodes as far as progression within the sports aspect of the show is concerned. And when you depict people as falling in love and having a strong foundation within an relationship, it doesn't land all that well when the pacing doesn't dictate it. You can't go from "fooling around..." to.. "fooling around with blurred feelings about it..." to.. "I love you and want to uproot and change my whole life to fit in yours..." when it was a year ago in the erratic pacing where they didn't speak. Not one word. People don't drop people and pick them up again at the same place. That is how the pacing is erratic. And if you're going to uproot your entire existence for someone, male, female or otherwise there has to be a foundation under it. Otherwise it's just lust disguised as love. If we're meant to believe that these two people are in fact, in love... then a bit of a slower less erratic pace would have held that foundation for them a bit better. It began in the latter stages of the episode prior to finale. I could care less about the hockey aspects, it is just a backdrop that allows proximity for the characters. Which is common in most writing.

Heated Rivalry is all about a gay storyline. The pacing is a bit jarring through the first three-ish episodes and it doesn't get better until the last two. It was written by a woman, or the book series the show is based on was anyway. So I don't know if the representation is going to be what people will want. I do wish the pacing was better, I think a lot of the heavier scenes within the writing would have landed better if they had more of a foundation to be set up by. As I think that's where the show lacked a little bit. As far as Heartstoppers go, I didn't like it because of the representation. Since it fell heavily on common and new, but overly done tropes throughout. The skinny nerdy bullied gay has to develop an eating disorder. His boyfriend who is a golden retriever jock had to feel powerless because even his goodness and well meaning couldn't save the bullied kid from his own misery. He wasn't enough and he was entirely apologetic about it. Teenagers know better and more about life than their parents who have lived on the planet longer than they have. To the point where they outright disregard sensible instruction and parenting, because they 'just don't feel like it.' I don't like shows that feature every character with spoken dialog within the queer spectrum either. It is fine if a core group of friends fall somewhere under that blanket. - Even then, established straight characters should stay that way. I don't care if it gives another character a better and happier ending. When something is established, let it be. When you start getting into faculty, staff, neighbors, people they meet on the street that's where you lose me. Especially if the writing makes a point in telling you who they're dating, their marital issues, their romantic issues, etc. For characters we don't care about and never will. Why do I suddenly have to care who the gym teacher and the art teacher are dating and having relations with? I don't and never will. Spoiler - it was each other. And they are more of a mess than the core group the show is supposed to be based on. Why do I have to care that another teacher's wife and her are having issues in their marriage? I met them all of two episodes ago for like five minutes. Enough. Focus on the story that's meant to be told, when that story finds its natural conclusion - end the damn thing. That is where Heartstoppers lost me. I'll never accept that the creator's background, gender, sexuality, race or whatever is a determinant factor in why something isn't representing or hitting right with people. It is the writing. People do it every day, some do it better than others. Fact of life. Just wait until we're all replaced by AI and we have zero representation anywhere.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Oh woops. Yeah. Well... to be fair, if I don't open up documents and get something going it may end up being 6 or 7 extra days. I have no idea what I want to do with this next chapter... I know what you all want... romp round two. I do not think I can live through it two chapters in a row though. We'll see what happens, I guess.

Two days? Try seven or so. 😮 You got Friday's chapter early. I mmmmmayybeeee should've clarified that for y'all before posting, woops. Also, I may or may not have the next chapter written. I mean I do have the 'last' chapter written, as a safety net still. But, unless you all tell me you want it to end, I'll make the attempt to keep going for a bit... I think I have one more planned chapter. I have planned ideas, but I don't know if they'll make the final cut or not. It may be a series of "epilogue" chapters, or I hell I might start a mini "continuance..." called... "Not a Liar..." I don't know. If nothing comes of any of this it has been fun.

Merry Christmas! Yeah, they finally got somewhere with that whole... mess. lol. Glad you thought it was worth the wait.

You're welcome. Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas to you as well.

Yeah, the man likes to win little benign arguments against me. It is going to be a fatal flaw for him one of these days, I'm thinking. I'm joking... maybe. But yeah. There's typically no living with him for a bit when he gets a one-up on me.

Thank you! I tried my best... I think my sex scenes will always have a bit of awkward involved... but, it fits these two nicely, the awkward. Merry Christmas to you as well.

I'm just a sauce leaning person in general. I like dry rubs, sauces, marinates, dressings, seasonings, etc. I will take a bite or two of steak without anything on it, the way it came to be... so I know what the base steak tastes like. But yeah, afterwards I'll be looking for a sauce. Or, I will order a steak that comes with a dry rub, sauce, or marination already prepped for it. One of the best steaks I ever ate had a "tropical" dry rub, it had liked dried pineapple and such within the seasoning. The steak itself was tender and cooked to perfection, the chef worth their weight knows flavor profiles, no matter what they're cooking.. and this chef obviously did... and knew how to cook steak too. And I like my steak slightly above rare, some people call it medium rare, but I like it slightly less "medium.." I just don't want rare really.

What's this!?!? You can't be two-timing your editing/beta reading. You and I have been in this professional marriage since 2007ish. How dare you! Well I never thought I'd see the day.