Seriously, how am I doing with this story?
In my last writing update of 2024, I announced a new ultimatum for myself: that I would finish Catgirl System completely and totally within this summer.
The finish line is close enough that I can smell it, yet I…don’t think I’m going to be hitting that goal.
Let me start with my actual progress. As of today (August 29th, 2025) I have 63,260 words of a mostly polished draft for Book 4, the final one.
I started with a draft I’d written three years ago. That early draft gave me a good timeline, had some good ideas, and told me what things absolutely weren’t working…but that was the extent of it. So I created this second, much-closer-to-final draft with memories of it in my head, though I never actually reread it.
I’d written bits and bobs of the Nearly Final Draft as far back as January, but my writing only began in earnest in June.
There was a huge interruption in July thanks to a family vacation. As I talked about in this Patreon post (it’s free! you can be a free member!), the trip left little time to work on creative things…which is a Zeroth World Problem.
Anyway, I returned home with the goal of writing at least 20 minutes daily, which I haven’t done, but I’ve been fairly steady on weekdays. Have a look! (Please attempt to ignore the columns I never even use.)
See, the weird colorful boxes on the right are abstract representations of how much time I spent writing within a week. The closer to a vibrant rose madder, the more I did. You can see that the week of August 17th-22nd was almost ideal, except for the fact that I didn’t write on Saturday.
What’s the Problem?
Yet again, I feel like I have many things to juggle. Work. Errands. Family stuff. Feeling ambiguously groggy sometimes.
There are some positive uplifting things I have to juggle too. In fact, I would be remiss not to mention one thing that has occupied many pockets of my time: being on the team for a project on Kickstarter right now:
It’s Winter Heat – a yuri visual novel about long-distance love in the internet age.
Come on, I can’t not advertise it here! It’s a wacky WLW game with adorable visuals! The Venn diagram of fans of Catgirl System and fans of Winter Heat has a huge intersection. (Note: I promise there will be actual relationship/s in Book 4.)
The point is, I’m busy. That’s just life, and I’m way luckier than many. The fact that I can write this story at all with any level of comfort is an astounding privilege in itself.
I just have to keep fighting back against the thoughts of “ugh, it’s only one day, why not skip it?” with the reminder that deep down, I do enjoy writing and I enjoy the feeling of sitting down to work on this story, with these characters.
How Far Left to Go?
Let’s estimate that Catgirl System Book 4 will be 100,000 words long (it could certainly end up shorter, but that’s just about the length of Book 2), and that I’ve written about 63% of that. I will need 37,000 more words.
On top of that, I’ll need to edit it further, because there are definitely some inconsistencies and general grammar errors floating around in here.
Given that my average words per day this month is about 624…and adding on am ambiguous length of time for that editing…I’d say I need…three more months?
I wish I felt comfortable setting a date for the release of the big finale of Catgirl System, but I really don’t. I just want to keep my head down and keep working, until that vision gets clearer.
Can I Speed Up?
Maybe. It’s a strong maybe.
I want to, and there have been stretches this summer where I have. It would be amazing to go downtown and sit in a café for hours while I type. In fact, that’s a fantasy I’ve been drifting back to for the past…year…s. But even spending $10 on transportation and a sammie feels excessive in a time when I also need to keep my head down and make money because Catgirl System is not my day job.
Still…I have to put more thought into this. The weekends exist for a reason and one of those reasons could be writing.
Final Thoughts
I really doubt I’m going to finish Catgirl System this summer. If I had worked steadily on vacation, I would’ve been a lot closer, but also sleepier and plagued with FOMO. If I’d been working more steadily every day back at home, I would’ve been a few thousand words closer…but not monumentally so.
But I assure you, I’m in the zone! Taipha and friends are just about to [REDACTED] on their way to the [REDACTED]. She just discovered her friends are [REDACTED] [REDACTED] and totally ruined the [REDACTED]. Or did she? You’ll just have to find out…in December, maybe.
Thanks for reading, and Patrons, thank you for Patreonning!
To find out where this Catgirl Saga all began, read my first ultimatum where I simply vowed to finish—years ago. Or for something completely different, read about the film Logan’s Run or the manga Prison School!