chapter 9 draft, please restart

Dotgraph showing passage-flow of chapter 8 and chapter 9 only. (I have already broken my own arbitrary rule about chapter length 😂)

So far…

• 151,514 words (based on illume proofing calculation)
• average of 250 clicks per read-through
• The “major” code review from the very beginning (mentioned in previous post) may have introduced new narrative and/or code errors. I will try to fix them as I find them. Hopefully nothing catastrophic.
• I’m not fully satisfied with chapter 9. Some scenes were re-written three times and still not quite there yet. Plot logic can get iffy. But I want to move on for now.

As mentioned in the previous post, I need to put this project on hold for a while to work on a paid freelance gig. Next (but technically not final) chapter will be titled “Life And Death,” and is about a fantasy-esque experience in the “spirit realm,” dealing with the dead, lingering trauma of people, and a potential finale for the MC (by reader’s deliberate choice). I expect it to take many months to write, so if the idea of that subject matter is already immersion-breaking or upsetting to read about, please feel free to stop following this project. 🙏

While the pandemic of virus and hatred still haunt us in the real world, we do what we must to stay healthy. 💟