The Choices Are Endless

Feb 28, 2010 Daily Writing, Short Stories

So I stripped out the back end of D-dad and took a different direction.  The story’s wound up at about 3,400 words, now and I think it’s pretty much in its final form.

Here’s a not-so-secret secret.  Writing a 10,000 word story doesn’t take much longer than writing a 3,000 word story.  For me, anyway.  Sure, it takes a little longer–a few hours–just in raw creation of words.  But the bulk of the work (again, for me, anyway) required to create fiction is focused on creating story, which is a lot different from creating words.

Now I get to decide what to write next.

New short?

Back to a novel?

Second novel in the Glamour series?

The choices seem endless — but that’s only because they are.

Another Draft 1 Bites the Dust

Feb 25, 2010 Daily Writing, Short Stories

I finished the first draft D-Dad, the short story I mentioned yesterday.  It registers now at 3200 words, and probably needs to be a touch shorter–the back end is a bit loose.  But overall, I’m happy with it.  The idea came as a response to a classic story I listened to while at the gym a few weeks back.  I took the basic premise and placed it in a totally different situation (the original is not science fiction, and this most definitely is) with somewhat different characters, then just let the process flow.

I was surprised at times at where the characters sent me.

Part of the joy of creation, I suppose.

As always, the title may change after the final tale settles on me a bit.  That’s how it seems to be working right now.  The working title gives me a push-off, then I come along and clean up behind the process to give it a face lift.

Novels, Jealousy, and a New Short

Feb 24, 2010 Daily Writing, Novels, Short Stories

The best thing about having completed and shipped a novel some place, in my semi-humble opinion, is that it takes away the nagging desire to tinker and clears the way for other work.  But the beast is off my desk now, and suddenly two days later I find myself nearing the end of a short story I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a couple weeks.

I had jotted a few notes here and there, and even had a paragraph or two of pseudo-code prose to capture a flavor of a thought, but the real work has really just poured throughover the past two days.  I figure tomorrow probably sees the end of the first draft, anyway, bloated as it will likely be.

We’ll see, though.

The second draft is generally more fun anyway.

I find that bigger projects are like this for me.  When I ‘m writing a novel I get all my energy tied up in it, and I really struggle to go work on anything else.  Short work I can multi-task between.  But novels are beasts that sit on my shoulder and whisper at me during all times of the day.  Novels get jealous, I guess.  Short Stories are just happy to be here.

And that is the sum total of my wisdom for the morning.  Off to work.

WotF 25th Anniversary Vid

Feb 18, 2010 WotF

Interesting little video about the Writers of the Future–filled with a bunch of L.Ron Hubbard stuff, of course…but hey, the guy at about 0:52 looks a little familiar.

One Book, Done

Feb 16, 2010 Daily Writing, Novels

A day later than planned, but I can live with that–oh, the glorious benefits of being without book contracts.