INJ Chapter 38
Okay so let me just bite the bullet, face the music, come to Jesus moment and admit that when I said the chapter was coming out today, I straight up fucking lied. Or at the very least, if you're feeling charitable towards me for some reason, I greatly overestimated the speed at which I could actually get this thing to you. That's on me, and I let you down, and I'm sorry for that, because it's nobody's fault but mine.
Earlier tonight, I had this whole separate large chunk planned as part of Chapter 38, and when I looked at it tonight, I suddenly realized, "Wait, I actually hate this and it sucks and it doesn't do anything we haven't seen before" and I balled it up and I threw it right into the trash (metaphorically speaking.) Right now I'm already past 13k words on Chapter 38, (not including that whole chunk I just deleted entirely), and I'm...maybe a third of the way done? Maybe less?
The point is, I'm immensely grateful to y'all, you are what makes writing this story so much fun. I have a duty to get this out to y'all on time and to keep my promises, but I think I have a greater duty to you and to the story itself, to make this thing good. And not just good, but worth your while, worth the time and effort y'all have invested into it, to make this the best it can possibly be. And I don't want to overhype myself, but I know it CAN be pretty damn good...and if I gave you what I had right now, or rushed to meet my self-imposed deadline, it wouldn't be. Which means you're not getting it tonight, and for that, I am deeply sorry.
I'm not going to give out another deadline, because that would be just making the exact same mistake I just made tonight, and I don't want to break that promise a second time. But I can promise that when you get it, it WILL be worth all this waiting. Count on it. The more I look at it, the more I realize, this could easily be the single best chapter of this story I've ever written...
...but I don't want to deliver it until I'm satisfied it is.