About five years ago, I wrote a Dress Off story to provide the origins for Bree Carson (“Bryony”) and Monica Fairchild (“Maria”). I’m publishing the story on Lush Stories, and re-reading it prior to submission, I’ve realised what countless writers have realised before me: that taking twelve years to incrementally write chapters of a story that should – in principle take place over around twelve months – is a problem if you’re silly enough to provide actual year dates in the chapters as you release them.
The lesson of the day: also provide relative dates (“five years before…”) and never actual dates (“2010…”).
