“A New Face on an Old Place” is done! Put roughly 500 more words into it today, coming up with a final word count of around 3,300. I’m going to let it sit for a few days, get a couple of people to read it, then read it again myself. After that, it’s getting fired off to Unidentified Funny Objects as my second submission there. Here’s hoping it works out! All in all, it took about 9 hours to write. It felt like a lot longer than that, though. I was really struggling with parts of it.

I began work on a fable today, not something I typically write. Spark’s anthology contest this year has to do with fables, and it seems like a worthwhile challenge. The working title is “The Rabbits of Forest Warren.” That may not be the final title, but it’s a start. The planning phase is finished and the rough draft is done at about 2,050 words. It’s really rough, but it’s done. The structure is sound enough, and so is the moral of not relying solely on another for your own defense. It just needs a lot of prettying up. I may dig into my Redwall books tomorrow for some ideas on the language side of things.

Also, I’ve decided to rewrite “A Necessary Sacrifice” for the Writers of the Future contest deadline this month. I had originally written it for the anthology of Unlikely Entomology last year, and it was rejected. Now that I’ve read several articles on story and plot structures I can see the faults in the original tale, although I did like the premise of it. I think with some reworking it’ll be good enough for the big time. The story will also need to be lengthened just a bit. The original tale came in at 7,200 words which is on the low end for what the Writers of the Future typically accepts. I think it’ll need to be more in the 9,000 – 12,000 range. With the way I plan to rewrite it, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Though today wasn’t very productive from a word count perspective, we did manage to write enough to exceed last month’s total word count and total salable word count. With 11 days left until March is over, that’s promising!

• Nonfiction: 397
• Planning and outlining: 785
• Short Fiction: 2,550
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 3,300

Total Fiction for Month: 52,157

Total Salable for Month: 13,940

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 102,380

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 24,884

I’m mostly finished with “A New Face on an Old Place.” As I was working on the story tonight I came to the realization that I was making it too long without building on the conflict. One scene could effectively explain all of the later steps that would occur in the plot, so I was spending a lot of time spinning the proverbial wheels. The writing wasn’t bad, but the added weight wasn’t adding anything else to the story other than weight. So, out it had to go. What’s left will be a much shorter tale, probably in the area of 3,000 words.

I just need to finish up with the final scene (Which my wife suggested), add in a little bit of discussion about what these “later steps” would have been, and that should do it. Provided the day job doesn’t keep me pinned down more than usual tomorrow I hope to have this done in the morning hours, and then I can get started on a new tale tomorrow afternoon.

I only completed about half of my word count goal for the day, but it’s still better than I’ve been doing, so I’m content. Tomorrow will be a better day!

• Nonfiction: 225
• Planning and outlining: 000
• Short Fiction: 3,000
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 49,607

Total Salable for Month: 10,640

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 99,830

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 21,584

“The Lone Blue Strand” is finished, and ready to get sent out the door. I’m going to have a couple of people read over it to see if there are any glaring errors I missed, and then it’s off to Penumbra before the end of the their deadline. Took a bit longer than I thought it would to finish. From the brainstorming phase to the final touches it was around 13 hours, with a total of 18,671 words written, rewritten, coaxed, teased, tortured, and condensed down into a final count of 3,368. That might change a little bit as I get feedback, but the final tally should be between 3,300 and 3,400.

Steampunk is not what I typically write, but it is a lot of fun. Hoping to do more!

Unfortunately the day job had me busy for longer than I wanted (Isn’t it like that for everyone?) so no more progress was made on two other pieces I want to get wrapped up soon. I’ll be devoting as much of tomorrow as possible to those tales, and we’ll see where we go from there!

• Nonfiction: 204
• Planning and outlining: 000
• Short Fiction: 4,000
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 3,350

Total Fiction for Month: 46,607

Total Salable for Month: 10,640

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 96,830

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 21,584

Today’s writing objectives were reached, albeit a little late. We went to bed late the night before, so I was unable to wake up more than an hour before Church. That restricted my morning to just resubmitting stories. The post-midnight hour right before bed was productive, though. Managed a partial re-outlining of “A New Face on an Old Place” that adds a scene at the beginning to bring the overall conflict into focus within the first few lines, as well as the challenge our dastardly protagonist faces.

Upon my return from church and following lunch I sat down and got to it. The first revised draft of “The Lone Blue Strand” is finished. It’s big and ugly, but it’s done. Between it and the rough draft I have a pretty good idea of where the second revision and subsequent final drafts will end up. Despite its chunkiness of 4,608 words I’m confident I’ll be able to get it under 3,500 words. There is some back-and-forth I was able to eliminate between the rough draft and the first revision, and I see where even more of that can be condensed in the follow-up writing.

The last thing I tackled before heading to bed was the second rewrite of the opening two scenes of “A New Face on an Old Place.” While it’s still not quite where I want it to be in terms of pacing and general humorousness, I’m going to start the day off tomorrow – once the day job is done – with finishing up this story.

All in all, not a bad finish to the previous week. The trick will be maintaining the pace. It’s doable. And if I want to meet my writing goals for the month, it’s necessary.

• Nonfiction: 316
• Planning and outlining: 314
• Short Fiction: 6,004
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 36,747

Total Salable for Month: 7,290

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 86,970

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 18,234

Today I finished working on the rough draft for “The Lone Blue Strand” and then spent time outlining what will be the revision. I hope to take care of that first revised draft tomorrow. The challenge for this story is going to be keeping it within the 3,500 word limit that Penumbra stresses. I was able to do it with “Mechanicis Solis” and that was a story with a similar setting in a steampunk-driven world. For me, steampunk needs description to help ground the reader into the world. That’s difficult when you’re pressed for words, but the result can be beautiful, tight language if done correctly. Now, with “Mechanicis Solis” the story was a bit too steampunk-ish for Penumbra’s “gaslamp fantasy” themed issue last year, but the theme this time around is simply “Isolation.” And I think I’ve got that part nailed with this story.

I’ve got a number of goals I want to finish prior to the ending of the month, so it’s my hope that tomorrow we can kick it into high gear and get a lot written.

• Nonfiction: 279
• Planning and outlining: 809
• Short Fiction: 2400
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 30,743

Total Salable for Month: 7,290

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 80,966

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 18,234

I’ve finished brainstorming and roughly outlining “The Lone Blue Strand” steampunk robocop story, and began work on the rough draft. We’re six handwritten pages in, or approximately 1,800 words. As with most of my rough drafts, I’ll likely abandon the writing entirely and focus more on the scenes and imagery I get out of the initial effort.

• Nonfiction: 84
• Planning and outlining: 1,104
• Short Fiction: 1,800
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 28,343

Total Salable for Month: 7,290

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 78,566

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 18,234

I’m about halfway through the revision of “Putting a New Face on an Old Place” and I’m not sure where the story is going, to be honest with you. Have you ever had that happen? Even with an outline and everything the story just isn’t going where you thought it would? This may have to stew around in my brain some more.

On a positive note, I’ve done a little bit of brainstorming on Penumbra’s “Isolation” theme for this month, and I think I’ve come up with an idea. It’ll be in a steampunk setting and feature the sole survivor of a civilization fallen to war/plague/whatever: an automized human constable. Think of it as a tribute to the aspects of Robocop that I liked best, which were the psychological, trying-to-reclaim-what-was-once-his aspects. Won’t be a thing like Robocop, I assure you. But, it’ll be in the spirit of that: a character no longer fully human attempting to regain or protect something. And no, it won’t be her humanity she’s trying to regain or protect.

• Nonfiction: 201
• Planning and outlining: 000
• Short Fiction: 2,076
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 26,543

Total Salable for Month: 7,290

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 76,766

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 18,234