April Progress Report

Bitter Secrets Progress Report

Hey guys! This is my progress report for the end of April. Like Carmen’s books, Bitter Secrets is turning out to be massive. Just one day in Jasmine’s life spans 3 chapters and some chapters are 11k words—the length of half a novella. I hoped to finish the first draft by the end of the month, but I need a little more time. I have about a 1/4 of the book left. I’m estimating that my final word count will be around 180k words (BH is 90k words and ABS is 134k words). A full length novel is around 100k words so this is the size of 2 books. I’m a little worried that it exceeds the maximum for a 6 x 9 paperback, but I’ll worry about that once it’s edited.

I am truly baffled by the length of my books nowadays. I’m not sure if I’m going too deep or taking too many detours, but right now I’m just putting it all in and will scale back later if I have to. I hope to post the first raw chapters on Patreon the last week of May, but will keep you all posted on that front.

Revised/Updated Projection for Bitter Secrets:

MAY:

• Complete first draft 
• Begin posting raw/revised chapters at the end of the month for Bigger/Super Baddie tiers. 

JUNE: 

• Continue revisions and posting chapters for Bigger/Super Baddie tiers. 

JULY: 

• Send to editor (IDK how long it will take the editor to get through a book of this length, but once she’s done, I will do a final read through/polish and will publish)

“You shouldn’t challenge me,” he said as he rested his face between her breasts. “It makes me want to do things to you…”

His unsteady voice made a wave of icy heat sweep over her. 

“Do you yield?”

“No.”

She felt his lips lift into a smile against her skin. 

“That’s my girl.”

Draft of Bitter Secrets © 2021 Mia Knight

Patreon

With the book being so much longer than anticipated, I put a temporary cap on the Super Baddie tier so people won’t be able to join until the edits are complete and I’m certain of a publication date. I post snippets three times a week on Patreon and am happy to see more and more people using our Discord server for book recommendations, discussing the weekly snippets, or posting memes. LOL. Like I said, my aim is to start posting raw chapters by the end of May. Note: the version of Bitter Secrets that will be posted on Patreon may not be the final. It still has to go to the editor and may be more heavily edited before publication. But for those who want it all ASAP, this will be for you. I'll be posting chapters as I finish revisions and foresee that I'll be posting throughout June. This bitch is long as hell, but it's the only way I know how to tell their story in its entirety, so... Bring on that fucking word count!

Life

This week has been a lot better than the last. Productivity is much higher and the story has been keeping me super busy. I know I keep saying this, but the story still manages to surprise me on a daily basis. I've also been doing a ton of research for certain scenes that I hope will make it feel more realistic.

I was doing so well with my sleeping schedule, but I've slipped back to crawling into bed at 4 or 5am. The other day I woke up around 11:30am and decided to take the dogs for a walk. This neighbor walks out and waves and I yell, "Good morning!" He pauses, smiles, and shakes his head as he walks to his truck. A little cringe, but I think everyone knows I'm odd and eccentric so... whatevs.

The weather has been getting increasingly warm here. You can tell summer's just around the corner. I hope things are looking up for you wherever you are. :)