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

The first revision of “Pearl Diver” is finished, and the second revision is underway. That should (hopefully) be finished tomorrow morning, depending on how the work day goes. Once that’s finished, it’s on to the first revision of “Putting a New Face on an Old Place” and beginning brainstorming for Penumbra’s “Isolation” theme. If I’m fortunate I can start the rough draft of a story for that as well, but I won’t hold my breath on it.  That could prove to be a tall order, but it’s always good to dream!

• Nonfiction: 118
• Planning and outlining: 000
• Short Fiction: 2,408
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 20,519

Total Salable for Month: 4,800

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 70,742

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 15,744

Today was another underproductive day.  I can’t say “unproductive” because a little bit was accomplished.  Mostly brainstorming on a few short story ideas that have been stewing in my brain for the last several months without me realizing it. I’ve committed very little of these brainstorming activities to paper, which is something I’ll need to rectify before I forget it all again.

I did get started on the revision of “Pearl Diver.”  I’m tempted to mark what I wrote as “salable” as I’m taking my time with getting the wording correct.  Also, the rough draft came out a lot more solid than I had originally thought it would.  But, who knows?  I may scrap and rewrite it several times, so I’ll keep it as simple fiction additions for now, and only once she’s off will the salable part come out.

Yesterday I found out that “Zombielock” wasn’t going to be a good fit for the UFO Anthology.  Alex Shvartsman gave me a rare personalized rejection notice and offered some suggestions on what my second submission ought to be.  It was also good to know that the story did make it far into the process before its ultimate demise.  That’s heartening considering this is a professional anthology.  Here’s hoping one or two of my other ideas take form in the next few weeks!

“Zombielock” has been sent elsewhere, so we’ll see how she fares elsewhere.

In other news, I have a few recently-written works that I haven’t tried to send out for publication in awhile because I’ve lost whatever faith I had in them.  It’s my goal to set aside some time this week to go through at least one of them and see if I can improve on them and send them out again.  Hopefully full rewrites won’t be needed, but that option is on the table.

• Nonfiction: 335
• Planning and outlining: 300
• Short Fiction: 513
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 18,111

Total Salable for Month: 4,800

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 68,334

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 15,744