Finished Sleeper Squad 60 today.

So, if you were keeping track of my "there are twenty-seven scenes and August has thirty-one days" race, let the record show, I ended at least four days under par.

For this one I deliberately did not check the page count, not once, until it was completely done. I wanted the story to take as many pages as it needed to take. That turned out to be thirty, which is pretty much what my estimate before starting was. So I might be getting better at estimating length from plot.

(And at estimating plot from length. These days I try to write to about a 27-30 page length -- for Sleeper Squad, the other projects still run a lot shorter -- and I've gotten better at "OK, how much plot is the right amount to hit that?")

I now have seven days left in August to use my creative time for something that is not Sleeper Squad.

Though, frankly, I'll probably use it to plot the September project, which ... well, I don't think it's subject to change, but lemme explain.

The remainder of the schedule for the year, as has been planned, is (remember, the work is done the month before; the September project comes out on 1 October):
September: The Hallowe'en story
October: Sleeper Squad 61
November: The final Coldpoint story
... leaving December to do something for Christmas.

The problem is I'm torn about the Hallowe'en story. The compulsive part of me wants the Hallowe'en story to come out on Hallowe'en, which would mean working on it in October instead (and just moving the release date up a day). Since I absolutely refuse to do two Sleeper Squads in a row, that would mean working on Coldpoint in September instead, and leave SS 61 until November. I could do that.

But the thing is, I don't put out the Christmas stories on 25 December. I always put them out a few days before that, because I feel like reading them is a thing you do in the run-up to Christmas. Christmas is the punchline -- the Big Ride is always at the end of the story. I think Hallowe'en is a little like that too. If I wait until the 31st to put it out, some people won't get around to reading it until Hallowe'en is already over, which isn't nearly as much fun.

(We won't concern ourselves with the folks who often don't read the stories until months or even years after I post them. Better late than never.)

On the other hand, if I'm going to do the Hallowe'en story in September then I absolutely do need to put it out on 1 October, no later, because I need October to work on the 1 November story -- which means Hallowe'en is going to come way early. I am not someone who approves of Hallowe'en candy appearing in stores in September or even August.

Eh. I guess everyone just gets their treats early this year. Stick to the plan, Col, stick to the plan.

Anyway, what I was getting at is that the Hallowe'en story does not yet have a plot, just a premise, so it might behoove me to get a head start on that. (Sleeper Squad 61 also does not have a plot, only a premise -- though it's a doozy of a premise. The ninth Coldpoint story has some holes left to fill, but is in better shape than the other two. The Christmas story is not yet even a gleam in my eye.)

ADDENDUM: Iain or somebody is going to come through here and say "You could finish the Hallowe'en story by the end of September and just not release it until mid-October, you know." Yes, I do know. The problem is:

1) then we go six weeks between big story releases and I don't like that long a gap;

2) I really need to have it completely cleared out of brain queue -- including not having to remember to release the fucker -- in order to be able to concentrate on the next one. It needs to be gone. (I don't trust DA's timed-release function for the longer stuff, and anyway the DA release is only about one-third of the release tasks. There is no timed-release function for AO3, for example.)