There comes a time when one has to step away from the systems, the processes, the planning, and just start work. And that’s what I started to do yesterday.
First job of the day was my weekly tech scan. I do this every week and used to do it on a Friday with a load of other admin jobs. But Fridays started to fill up with so many admin jobs I didn’t have any time slots left to do any work. So I started to scatter them throughout the week, and Wednesdays are now tech scan days.
Then I had the entire morning devoted to brainstorming the story for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS. The intention with these stories is to use them as a brainstorming pre-writing tool. At first I was just going to write a story and then see if I could apply the prompt to the tale. But that’s the wrong way of doing it, for me. Instead, I should take the prompt and the word-count, and use those to bounce off.
So far this year, all 3 of my 12 STORIES have been near future sci-fi or fantasy. The first one, for January, was supposed to be 1.200 words, and it was the first in my INTERNATIONAL TUNDRA SPACE HOTEL series. I introduced the hotel, introduced the main character, and off I went. But I didn’t complete the storyline. I did leave it at a suitable place, but I thought it was more like a 2,000-word story than 1,200 words.
My 2nd story for 12 STORIES featured the same main character, but this time he was on a near future Earth, and this time I had 1,250 words to play with. I didn’t complete the 1st story, though. So yesterday I started to brainstorm the final 500 words of the first story, and I started a partial outline too as well as an opening line. If I can write a complete 500-word story to complete the first one, it’ll be closer to 2,000 words.
More importantly, it will be something I can play with in the future. It’s not on my schedule yet, other than for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS (BRAINSTORM, OUTLINE, WRITE, REVISE and PROOFREAD), and it doesn’t yet have a title. But the 2 stories merged together will become WELCOME TO THE INTERNATIONAL TUNDRA SPACE HOTEL.
This week is an intensive 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS week, so this is the only short story I’ll be working on for the rest of the week. Next week I revisit FALLEN ANGEL, a fantasy story.
In the afternoon, true to my promise to myself, I picked up the editing job and took it into the living room, away from the distraction of the computer.
My reading this week
This week’s reading hasn’t changed much beyond last week’s reading.
The 3 non-fiction books are the same: JUST EAT IT, WRITING COMPELLING FICTION, and HOW TO WRITE A COZY MYSTERY.
G IS FOR GUMSHOE, though, did make way for H IS FOR HOMICIDE, which isn’t one of my favourites. I don’t know why, but as soon as I started it I remembered that it wasn’t a fave.
I think part of H is that it’s a letdown from G instead of a buildup. Just wait until you get to L, my least favorite so far. I’m curious as to what you think of it.
Enjoy the work!
Perhaps. I also think it has something to do with the dogs, and the potential to harm dogs leaves me on the edge of my seat, especially when Kinsey admits in earlier stories that she really isn’t a dog person. It also finished really, really abruptly, which I would have hated even more if I hadn’t found the epilogue (again) at the end of all the back matter (again – this might be our UK Kindle version if it doesn’t happen in yours). And I found it lacking credibility. But apart from that…
I can’t remember L yet, but I only remembered I IS FOR INNOCENT and how much I dislike the opening when I started to read it last night.