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

Today I started making headway on “Putting a New Face on an Old Place.”  I changed protagonists around in the morning and re-outlined the story.  The bulk of the rough draft was written in about 2,300 words, enough that I have a good idea of what’s working and what’s not.  For instance, the story was originally a back-and-forth conversation between two people, the protagonist and the person who’s trying to get the protagonist to change and make a decision.  I’m thinking of adding a third person, one who’s trying to keep the protagonist on the current, dire course.  In a way, both characters will be externalizing what’s going on in the protagonist’s head, as the protagonist understands a change is needed.  He just doesn’t want to do it.  Not initially, anyway.

I also came up with a couple of ideas for humor-based stories I may try and flesh out at a later date, or sooner if the story in the previous paragraph just doesn’t pan out.

Today I was supposed to start my revision of “Pearl Diver.”  It didn’t happen, and I have no excuse other than poor time management.  I knew we had a church function following the regular service and we were also headed to the movie theater in the afternoon which turned into a dinner date.  The Wind Rises is well worth seeing, by the way.  Different from Miyazaki’s other works in that it’s a biography/docudrama rather than a complete work of fiction, but the animation is still top-notch.

• Nonfiction:
• Planning and outlining: 450
• Short Fiction: 2,300
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 17,598

Total Salable for Month: 4,800

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 67,821

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 15,744

Weekends are always strange.  There seems to be a lot more free time to write and yet often less gets done.  There are errands to run and chores to do and other things to take care of that just don’t get done in the week.  Before you know it, it’s night time and you’ve only finished one of two daily projects you wanted to tackle.

The rough draft for “Pearl Diving” has been finished at roughly 2,850 words, and the outline for “Putting a New Face on an Old Place” has been accomplished, although I think I’ll want to revisit that tomorrow before I get started on the rough draft of that.  There are some soft parts of the plot that need firming up before I want to sit down and spend time on a rough draft.  I don’t think the story will be all that long, either.  Likely it’ll be right at 2,000 words or so, which is shorter than I originally anticipated.

• Nonfiction: 190
• Planning and outlining: 1,350
• Short Fiction: 2,850
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 15,298

Total Salable for Month: 4,800

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 65,521

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 15,744

I’m glad yesterday was as productive as it was, because today the ol’ day job interfered.  Put in a twelve hour day and didn’t have a whole lot of time – or energy – to produce anything.  I did start reading – and editing – “UnCivil Engineering.”  It’s my hope to get it finished and out the door tomorrow at the latest.

Ok, on to today’s numbers:

• Nonfiction: 91
• Planning and outlining: 000
• Short Fiction: 785
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 10,048

Total Salable for Month: 000

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 60,271

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 10,944

If every day could be like today…  Well, we could still do better, but it would be much more amazing than some of my days have been of late.

“UnCivic Engineering” is done.  The rough draft and the first revised rewrite, anyway.  I put another 2,700 words in on the rough draft and came up with a total rough draft of around 4,200 words (Approximate.  I typically write rough drafts by hand).  The first revised rewrite was written in the afternoon from about 1:30 to 5:30, and it came out to around 5,063 words.  That’s even longer than the rough draft was, but I know why.  Even though both versions contained the same number of scenes, in the rough draft I was just dropping the characters into each scene without any kind of transition.  One scene they’re running for their lives, the next they’re up on a roof wondering what to do, the next they’re on a different roof.  This time the scenes flowed into one another.  I think the added transitions are an improvement to the overall flow of the story, but a lot can still be cut out.  That’s what tomorrow afternoon will be dedicated to.  I want to go through the story scene by scene, then paragraph by paragraph, then line by line.  The fat needs to be trimmed out and anything humorous needs to be maximized.

I’m pleased with the results for what they are, though.  A rough draft that needed to be rewritten, and a rewrite that will need a bit of revising.

Ok, on to today’s numbers:

• Nonfiction: 586
• Planning and outlining: 000
• Short Fiction: 7,763
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 9,263

Total Salable for Month: 000

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 59,486

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 10,944

“UnCivil Engineering” is coming along nicely.  Basically, it’s turning into a series of “Let’s Try This” Wily Coyote moments, where the main characters are doing different things to deal with the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse and fulfill their epic goal of cutting down on their commutes to work.  If anyone here has worked in or around New York City or Atlanta or any other major metropolitan area knows how annoying the travel time can be, with or without the zombies (And some would argue that their fellow commuters might as well be zombies).

That could be where this story originally came from.  I lived on Staten Island for a little over two years, first commuting into Manhattan and then commuting to Long Island.  In both cases the travel time was at least two hours one-way.  Traveling into Manhattan called for a train ride, a ferry ride, and a subway ride to get to my destination.  Traveling to Long Island required an automobile.  I’m not sure which was worse, but neither were fun.  With the Manhattan commute I could read a plethora of books, which I was happy to do.  My guilty pleasure during that time was the Gaunt’s Ghosts series of Warhammer 40K books by Dan Abnett.  Excellent series if you’re looking for straight-up action with characters that eventually grow on you.

On the other hand, the Manhattan commute led to a lot of pushing and shoving as people fought each other to get on and off the train/ferry/subway.  So, that could be annoying.

Anyway, on to today’s numbers.  Still not to the daily goal I want, but the day job kept me longer than planned:

• Nonfiction: 305
• Planning and outlining: 1,000
• Short Fiction: 1,500
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 1,500

Total Salable for Month: 000

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 51,723

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 10,944