I have been gently reminded via email that I haven’t done my April, ‘30-in-30’ challenge update. So here it is:
I ended up writing 28 short stories in 30 days. If it hadn’t been for Norwescon, I’m sure I could have hit my goal. But I’m not too upset. Going from not writing any short fiction since…1995 or so to pounding out a story a day, I’m pretty happy. It was fun. I honestly don’t know where all the story ideas came from. Sometimes I’d sit down in the Throne of Writing(tm) in front of a blank MS Word doc and just start typing. Sometimes I’d have the first line in my head or a scene and more often than not, a story came out.
I wrote second person stories, sci fi stories, mystery stories (well, just 1 really), fantasy stories, (sex stories which will never see the light of day) and stories that were a mix of all of the above (yes, really). As a writing exercise, it was awesome. Clarion West holds no terrors for me now. (which is easy to say since I didn’t make it in this year.)
Anyway, out of the 28, I’ve mailed off three so far. I’ve had one rejected so far (yea me) and I fully expect more to be rejected as the months go by. All of the stories were written in 2-3 hours, after work. Polishing will be needed for most of them but a good chunk of them should be marketable, or at least we’ll find out if they are.
It was nice to write something and finish it. Angel Odyssey has been a WIP for just over a year now. Short stories are small, self-contained accomplishments. That can be a nice ego boost as is discovering that I can tell a story in less than 300 pages.
Speaking of AO, I started my final edit pass last night. God, how editing drags on. A sharp, painful contrast to the joy of writing. Still, it has to be done. I renamed a character, putting in a little Hebrew linguistic joke, I hope. I renamed the marriage-bond and that is taking forever, rephrasing all the scenes in the book where it is reference or talked about. I’m tightening things up as I go, cutting words and sentences, one snippet at a time. I need to, I added a whole prologue. Oy.
Once all that is done, I’ll read the whole book aloud. I wonder if I could do a reading or something at the local Barnes and Noble? Hmm. Might be worth looking into.
I ended up writing 28 short stories in 30 days. If it hadn’t been for Norwescon, I’m sure I could have hit my goal. But I’m not too upset. Going from not writing any short fiction since…1995 or so to pounding out a story a day, I’m pretty happy. It was fun. I honestly don’t know where all the story ideas came from. Sometimes I’d sit down in the Throne of Writing(tm) in front of a blank MS Word doc and just start typing. Sometimes I’d have the first line in my head or a scene and more often than not, a story came out.
I wrote second person stories, sci fi stories, mystery stories (well, just 1 really), fantasy stories, (sex stories which will never see the light of day) and stories that were a mix of all of the above (yes, really). As a writing exercise, it was awesome. Clarion West holds no terrors for me now. (which is easy to say since I didn’t make it in this year.)
Anyway, out of the 28, I’ve mailed off three so far. I’ve had one rejected so far (yea me) and I fully expect more to be rejected as the months go by. All of the stories were written in 2-3 hours, after work. Polishing will be needed for most of them but a good chunk of them should be marketable, or at least we’ll find out if they are.
It was nice to write something and finish it. Angel Odyssey has been a WIP for just over a year now. Short stories are small, self-contained accomplishments. That can be a nice ego boost as is discovering that I can tell a story in less than 300 pages.
Speaking of AO, I started my final edit pass last night. God, how editing drags on. A sharp, painful contrast to the joy of writing. Still, it has to be done. I renamed a character, putting in a little Hebrew linguistic joke, I hope. I renamed the marriage-bond and that is taking forever, rephrasing all the scenes in the book where it is reference or talked about. I’m tightening things up as I go, cutting words and sentences, one snippet at a time. I need to, I added a whole prologue. Oy.
Once all that is done, I’ll read the whole book aloud. I wonder if I could do a reading or something at the local Barnes and Noble? Hmm. Might be worth looking into.
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