Progress is coming on all but the reading front. Had bigger plans for today, but some emergency outdoor work coupled with recovering from an illness ruined my late afternoon and evening plans. But, all in all it was still a productive day:

• Write “Snowmelt” and come up with a real name for it. Managed to write scenes 2 through 6, and part of 7. Ten pages, or around 2,500 words. I’m more than halfway through the story, though the scenes will likely need to be re-ordered to get the pacing I really want. I still need to come up with a real name for it. The placeholder name is bugging me.
• Edit my WOTF entry. Didn’t get a chance to look it over today. That was my afternoon plan, and it got messed up. I do not have time for it tomorrow, but I will see what I can do. It’s my hope to get this edited to the point that I’m really happy with it, then send it off to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for a first attempt. If I get any feedback from that, I’ll make note and get it more polished for the Writers of the Future.
• Keep working on the Wendigo Novel 1 outlining process, first with Michael A Stackpole’s “21 Days To a Novel“. Couldn’t start on Day 18, which is to come up with scenes that affect all the character arcs, or as many as possible. Got started on this, but could not complete it.
• Keep working on the Wendigo Novel 1 outlining process, this time with the plan in Karen Wiesner’s “First Draft in 30 Days“. Day 5 and 6 in the plan involve a summary outline of the story. A good bit of the summary is finished, but I’m not quite there yet. I think Day 5 and 6 will take a couple more days, at the rate I’m going.
• Read Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman. I’ve gotten through the introductory chapter. Could not get into this today, sadly.
• Read Volume 30 of the Writers of the Future. Volume 28 is mostly finished, so I expect to start this tomorrow.

Remember: when writing a rough draft, expect it to suck. That way you can plow through and complete it. Writing it down the first time is the fun part. The real work begins with the rewriting and editing. But, before that can happen it has to be finished! Don’t try to make it perfect the first time, or it’ll never happen.

Here are today’s numbers:

Blog Posts: 381
Planning and outlining: 1,000
Short Fiction: 2,500
Novel Fiction: 0
Salable words: 0

Total Fiction for Month: 3,250

Total Salable for Month: 0

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 3,250

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 0