As I’ve mentioned previously, in addition to working on my erotica, I’m also writing a science fiction choose-your-own-adventure story. It’s up to almost 90,000 words; I work on it on my lunch breaks at work in the office, and I try to write a little of it every day I’m there.

The problem with writing a story like this is that once you’ve written the parts you’re interested in you’re stuck with the parts you don’t care about. The same thing happened with Switching Plans — I kept writing the parts I was most interested in, and saved the parts that I wasn’t until the end. If you look really carefully at that book, you can see places where I sped through because I wanted to get to a different part of the story, or where I was less motivated to write certain scenes.

The same thing is happening with the sci-fi story. I’ve written a bunch of different branches, including several death scenes; I’ve created four different starships for my main character to serve on, each with its own distinct crew; and I’ve also given him some things to do on the space station where the story starts out. I still have two more starships to write, as well as some political intrigue, another romantic scene or two, and some various odds and ends.

At the time I’m writing this post, I’ve finished 111 out of 159 “pages”, which leaves me only 48 to go — and I’m sure some of them will involve some copying and pasting. The end of this story is in sight; I’m sure that, if I put my mind to it, I can finish the first draft by the end of the year. (Of course, remember what happened last time I gave myself an arbitrary deadline…) This story is going to be finished, and it’s going to be published (under a different name; I keep my erotica and my sci-fi separate), and I bet people are going to enjoy it. I just have to force myself to write those parts I don’t like.

It’s kind of like when you’re a kid and you have protein, starch, and vegetables on your dinner plate. You might not like the vegetables, so you leave them for the end, and then you have to force them down. Or you can eat them first so you can enjoy the protein and starch. (Or you can do what my kid does: mix the vegetables with the starch and then drown them in ketchup, but that doesn’t really fit the metaphor.) I feel like, the next time I write a choose-your-own-adventure, I’m going to have to write the parts I’m least interested in first. Unfortunately, if I do that, the main character’s characterization might change in a way I don’t like.

What I really ought to do is save one part of the story that I know I’m really going to like for dessert — give myself something to look forward to writing. It’s too late for that with my sci-fi story, but I’m only about a third of the way through the sequel to Switching Plans, so it’s entirely possible that, when I get back to that book (after I finish writing the holiday stories), I’ll remember to save something to enjoy at the end.