Yeah, I know I'm interrupting the story at a particularly particular moment, but that's just how it goes.

I said we needed to talk, and it can't be put off any longer. Well, it could, I guess, but that's neither here nor there.

I have several things I want to talk about, and the first one is update pacing. Now, as we've discussed (well, at least I've mentioned), Royal Road encourages frequent posting. Every time a story gets updated, it appears (however briefly) on the Home Page in the "Latest Updates" list. Readers looking for something new might see that, and click if the picture and blurb are attractive enough.

The 'Trending' lists are another way that frequent posters get rewarded- by appearing on the trending lists, a story can attract new readers. An increase in readership, of course, means the story moves up on the trending lists and in the overall rankings.

The obvious limiter is how much an author can write, and how willing the readers are to put up with more frequent but necessarily shorter updates.

Some authors here on Royal Road crank out a stunning amount- frequent (sometimes daily, or close to it) updates with decent-sized installments. I admire these other authors, and I wish I could take the time to write that would allow me to post so much.

That's the background. So, my question is this- should I continue to post twice a week, shooting for 3-4,000 word updates, or once a week, but the chapters would be twice as big?

I'm a bit like Jen in the story- I can go either way. So I'll leave it up to you guys. What do you say? Once a week, but twice as big a chapter? Twice a week, keeping it the way it is now?

The second issue I want to discuss is whether I've gone too far into the slice-of-life fluffiness. Yes, the track stuff had a point, yes, the discussions about work are there for a reason, yes, Jimmy and the rest of the Saturday Morning Crew play a part in the overall plot... but I worry that it might not seem that way, since the plot is now moving forward so slowly.

What do you guys think? Should I step on the accelerator and pick up some speed, or are you guys happy to enjoy the view at a more leisurely pace?

As a corollary question, why do you guys think I spent so much time on the track day? What aspects of the story were served by highlighting it so egregiously?

Third thing I wanted to discus is... Um, hold on. It's right on the tip of my tongue...

Oh, yeah. The steamy bits. Do I really write sex scenes like a middle-aged guy from Ohio? I've never even been to Ohio! What are middle-aged guys there like? Are they known for their lesbian erotica? Inquiring minds want to know!

Seriously, I've been trying to write the sex scenes consistent with Leah's narrative style, and that's sort of challenging. Leah, as we all recognize by now, isn't really very introspective. She isn't given to flowery speech, and more than occasionally she's pretty damned unaware of others' feelings. Not that she's uncaring or unempathetic, it's just that she's sort of oblivious. Since she's our narrator, she doesn't tell us about things she doesn't notice... and that's how we end up with, among other things, sex scenes that sometimes focus more on the physical side of things rather than the emotional.

I've been kicking around the idea of writing something closer to a traditional romance/erotica story, probably too steamy for RR... maybe I'll write it and post on Literotica? If I do, I'll provide a link, or at least a way to find it. The characters I have in mind share aspects with Leah and Emmy, but are definitely not the same. The main point would be to develop my love scene writing chops a bit, so it wouldn't be anything close to the length of Emmy And Me.

Anyhow, please let me know what you guys think about chapter length and frequency. Also, let me know about the pacing, and if I'm just losing you in all this stuff that seems beside the point and get back to Emmy, damn it!

Also, critique the sex scene writing. And please, help me understand how middle-aged guys from Ohio write their lesbian erotica, so I can figure out what it is I'm doing wrong (or right, as the case may be).