Writing

Pairs of Shorts Weekly Update #2 (Sept. 19, 2015)

As promised, here is the final selection of stories, first by category and next as a single, magical list of titles.

Definitely in:

Learning to Die
Slice of Life
The Cobalt Sensation
The Chicago 8 vs. Time
The Chicago 8 vs. Armageddon
Hello?
The Lunch Gnome
The Dream of the Buckford County Church

Possibly in:

Cervidae
The Sometimes Island
At the Door
Killing Time
Laura
The Graffiti Avenger
Lily Tries to Go Shopping
Follow the Tracks
Sammy Takes a Dive

Would require re-working/additional drafts:

The Broken Bridge
Stop That Cow!
Rainy Day
Trolling for Fun and Profit
The Invisible Weekend

Unfinished:

Dented World
The Box on the Bench

Not written:

Regina and the Shortcut with Teeth
Sanity Road/Bent Metal
The Capitol Dome
Swimmers and Fog
Picture This

And the full list below:

10 Pairs of Shorts

  1. Learning to Die
  2. Slice of Life
  3. The Cobalt Sensation
  4. The Chicago 8 vs. Time
  5. The Chicago 8 vs. Armageddon
  6. The Lunch Gnome
  7. The Dream of the Buckford County Church
  8. The Sometimes Island
  9. At the Door
  10. Killing Time
  11. The Graffiti Avenger
  12. Lily Tries to Go Shopping
  13. The Broken Bridge
  14. Stop That Cow!
  15. Rainy Day
  16. Dented World
  17. The Box on the Bench
  18. Regina and the Shortcut with Teeth
  19. Sanity Road
  20. Picture This

This makes for a grand total of twenty stories or ten pairs of shorts, a nice, even number.

My next weekly update will finalize the stories I want to work on completing next. I reserve the right to put this off if I win Wednesday’s $16 million 6/49 jackpot.

National Novel Writing Month 2015: The Debate

The debate is whether I want to participate this year or skip it.

Pros:

  • if I’m in a writing lull at the time (November 1, to be exact) it’s a great way to kickstart things
  • I commit to a longer work that I may not have otherwise (short stories are so much easier because they’re, well, short)
  • the camaraderie of toiling along with other NaNoWriMo participants is nice
  • seeing the word count go up every day is more satisfying than it has any right to be

Cons:

  • if I’m in the middle of a writing project, the necessary pause for NaNoWriMo can derail it
  • a novel written in 30 days is usually not very good
  • it’s easy to write 50,000 words in a blur; rewriting them takes almost the same effort as writing another book
  • the camaraderie only takes you so far
  • my NaNoWriMo bio is never as clever or witty as I want it to be

In the end I’ll probably take part if the first item in the Pro list is happening come November. NaNoWriMo is a great way to get rolling on some steady output when work/life/the universe has otherwise snuffed out your enthusiasm and smothered your muse with a pillow borrowed from the Chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Pairs of Shorts Weekly Update #1 (Sept. 12, 2015)

Yes, a weekly update to guilt me into making progress at least once every seven days or face the self-imposed shame of having not done so*.

My current task is to finally set down the actual stories to include based on how well they fit together, quality (fewer and better is preferable to the alternative), current state (third draft vs. unfinished, etc.) and so forth. Here’s how they stand now:

Definitely in:

Learning to Die
Slice of Life
The Cobalt Sensation
The Chicago 8 vs. Time
The Chicago 8 vs. Armageddon
Hello?
The Lunch Gnome
The Dream of the Buckford County Church

Possibly in:

Cervidae
The Sometimes Island
At the Door
Killing Time
Laura
The Graffiti Avenger
Lily Tries to Go Shopping
Follow the Tracks
Sammy Takes a Dive

Would require re-working/additional drafts:

The Broken Bridge
Stop That Cow!
Rainy Day
Trolling for Fun and Profit
The Invisible Weekend

Unfinished:

Dented World
The Box on the Bench

Not written:

Regina and the Shortcut with Teeth
Sanity Road/Bent Metal
The Capitol Dome
Swimmers and Fog
Picture This

Not included:

Green Revolution
Hot Dog
Noises
Sing, Toaster, Sing
The Downside
Transformations
The Amorphous Baby
A Pod with a View
Big Green Monster That Sat on Cleveland
Downside
The Little Boy Who Rode a Green Bike

The “Not Written” category consists of story ideas and in some cases actual scenes. I’d probably only include something from this group if I really felt the collection was going to be too short. The chance of the collection being too short is zero, however, so these are really more “ideas to pursue at some vague time in the future.”

The “Not Included” stories are unfinished, don’t fit well or are just plain not very good, but I wrote them and considered them.

Having a solid base of eight stories to start with is encouraging. The next weekly update will be The Great Winnowing and Final Selection. After that, maybe some actual writing.

* given the microscopically tiny readership of this blog, it would definitely be self-imposed shame. The Jetpack plugin informs me that yesterday, September 11, 2015, this site had zero visitors. According to science you can’t get lower views than that without some kind of quantum trickery.

What happened to my shorts

Long ago, in the days of yore, or more specifically, on December 31 2013 I announced my intention to gather a bunch of short stories into a collection I would self-publish. Here is the relevant part of that post as a refresher:

In 2014 (one day from now, though this is not something that will actually be happening tomorrow, barring some kind of time travel trickery) I will be self-publishing my first short story collection. After looking over the collected stories I have written and weeding out those either not ready or not up to par I have settled on twenty for a collection that will be titled 10 Pairs of Shorts. Clever, eh?

And now, here is an update as of September 3, 2015, in convenient list form:

  • I have not published the collection
  • 20 stories is a lot of stories to read, revise and in some cases, also write
  • I still like the title
  • I still intend on doing this, however scaled down the effort might be

The good news is enough of the stories are ready to give me a little momentum. Apart from that I promise nothing except to report back in exactly one year with a progress report. Actually, I have offer one more promise: a more detailed status report sometime in the next few days, barring illness (I am in fact, not feeling well. I blame mass transit as always).

Write something every day

The key to writing is simple.

Write.

See? Simple.

I have tried to find ways to motivate myself to write regularly because I know if I do it builds momentum that carries me along from one writing project–however big or small–to the next. I have done what many aspiring writers have done. I’ve read books designed to educate, to inspire, to prod and nag and drive you to the computer, typewriter (ho ho) or quill pen and legal pad (HarlanWrite™), I’ve tried the stick approach (“No cookie until I finish this page”), I’ve tried the carrot (“If I type a paragraph, I get a kitten. Yay kitten!” This is an actual thing, by the way. See here: Written? Kitten!), I’ve tried pretty much any approach one might come across in a few decades or more of cranking out words.

In the end I don’t have any magical, surefire technique to motivate myself, but somehow I always fumble my way back to writing. Sometimes I lapse for a few days or weeks, sometimes for years. The fallow years make me sad but not regretful. If I had written during those times it probably would have been about werewolf sex.

After hurting my right leg on August 3rd–three days into my vacation–I knew I would probably not run for the rest of the month and possibly longer. This bummed me out. Running is not only good exercise for me, it’s also great stress relief. When I’m out on a trail running on a warm summer day, serenaded by the music piping through my earbuds, I feel good. Not even wayward cyclists can bother me. To have this activity suddenly shut off made me think, “My blog isn’t going to be filled with jogging posts for weeks.” I had a choice–let the blog go dry until I started running again, fill the blog up with complaints about how I wasn’t running or, perhaps, actually write about things other than running.

I vowed then to write something every day. I didn’t actually start until August 19th but every day since then I have written something. Some days it’s been slight, other days it’s been a bit more substantial. I am tending toward the inane as I get my proverbial sea legs. But for now the momentum is back. It feels nice, like a good run.

(This is post #17 for the month, my best monthly output since July 24, 2014. I am both delighted and horrified by this.)

NaNoWriMo 2014: Days 16 through 23 with bonus winning

Another batch of updates for my National Novel Writing novel writing thing:

  • Day 16: none (due to illness)
  • Day 17: 3625 (+1,958)
  • Day 18: 2296 (+629)
  • Day 19: 2151 (+348)
  • Day 20: 2153 (+448)
  • Day 21: 2056 (+389)
  • Day 22: 2009 (+342)
  • Day 23: 2051 (+384)

As you can see, Day 16 was less than productive due to a bout of the flu. I made up for it by writing over twice the required text the next day while recovering. After that I maintained a 2,000+ word pace through to the 23rd when I officially passed 50,000 words and was declared a winner and got an imaginary ticker-tape parade. It’s impressive because ticker-tape isn’t easy to come by any more. My word count on Day 23 is 50,562, though the NaNoWriMo website counted a few words WriteMonkey did, so my total there is 50,677.

My current plan is to keep forging ahead and do some thinking about the plot, which is still a tad on the loose side. I’m not going to stop writing to get the plot into better shape, though, as that seems fairly begging for trouble.

Plus I’m curious to see what my word count will end up on come November 30. If I stay on pace it should be around 65,000 or so, which will still be well below what the first draft will ultimately be, for the story is a bloated and meandering thing. Come second draft it will go on a crash diet. One Cheerio per day, no more.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Days 9 through 15

Another bunch o’ National Novel Writing Month updates as I chug along:

  • Day 9: 1,769 (+102)
  • Day 10: 1,717 (+50)
  • Day 11: 2,304 (+637)
  • Day 12: 2,015 (+348)
  • Day 13: 2,603 (+936)
  • Day 14: 1,924 (+257)
  • Day 15 (halfway point): 1,806 (+139)

At the halfway point I have written 34,221 words, which is 9,221 above the minimum of 25,000. Much of the prose would make [insert name of any beloved, well-known author here] either weep openly or roll in her/his grave as appropriate, but that’s what you get when you steamroll through a novel in 30 days without any editing along the way.

I’ve come to terms with editing, though, so the thought of having to go over this sloppy story to hammer it into shape is, in a weird way, kind of exciting.

Onward to the second half of the month and a hopeful Big Finish™.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Days 4 through 8

Despite the lack of updates, I have been working diligently away at NaNoWriMo 2014. I’ve stopped updating daily because it feels like post-padding without having something unique to say about a particular writing session, like “I was writing today when my left foot suddenly fell off and the stump starting gushing blood all over the place.”

Note that my feet are currently intact and otherwise fine. Here is a summary of the last five days. The number in parentheses is how much I exceeded the minimum of 1,667):

  • Day 4: 1,668 words (+1)
  • Day 5: 1,720 words (+53)
  • Day 6: 1,801 words (+134)
  • Day 7: 2,257 word (+590)
  • Day 8: 1,966 words (+289)

Total after 8 days: 20,083 (+6,747)

The story is still a bit formless and I have little doubt the pacing is all wrong but I’m content to keep pushing and letting it find its own way, with the thought in the back of my mind that a lot of revision will be needed to get it into shape afterward. Such is the way of putting the emphasis on quantity over quality.

NaNoWriMo 2014, Day 3

Still on track on Day 3, with 2,003 words written and a total of 10, 671 (minimum to stay on track after three days is 5,000). The story is flabby and slowly warming up, with most of the primary characters introduced and there broad hints of spooky shenanigans to come.

I’m not sure what I will write on Day 4 but that’s all part of the nutty fun. Just writing regularly again feels good, like rolling naked on a furry carpet. Or so I’ve been told.

NaNoWriMo 2014, Day 2

Success!

I trimmed away 200 words from my previous day’s writing, which is a big no-no in NaNoWriMo but I’m a rebel. It meant that while I wrote more than the daily minimum (1749 words–the minimum is 1667) it calculates the total for the day at a shameful 1549 words.

I’m not entirely sure where the story is going next but I am sticking with my guiding principle of “go nuts.” On to Day 3!

National Novel Writing Month 2014 begins today: 50,000 words or doom (or both!)

National Novel Writing Month 2014 begins today and the first pep talk of the month has been posted by author Chuck Wendig. It can be read here: Pep Talk from Chuck Wendig

Wendig misses being an awesome name by a mere single letter. But would I actually consider clicking “Buy” on an Amazon book by a Chuck Wendigo? Possibly. I imagine Chuck has long ago weighed the pros and cons of this.

Here are two things he writes in his pep talk, completely taken out of context, because they better serve as bizarre totems of inspiration this way:

Crack open your chest and plop your heart onto the page.

Donuts in an empty field.

The first brings to mind the ritual seen in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. That ritual did not end well for the heart-offering participant. I recommend plopping out a less vital organ, like your appendix, if you still have it. I’m not sure what kind of story you would write after looking at your appendix soaking into a sheet of paper on your desk. Probably not a romance.

The second conjures an image of abandoned donuts, stale and windswept. What kind of monster would abandon donuts in a field, anyway? Possibly a monster watching its waist. Those poor donuts, left to the uncaring elements or ravenous coyotes. Now imagine running into a pack of coyotes hopped up on these donuts, their blood racing thanks to the ingestion of deliciously smooth Boston creams and sticky honey crullers. Is this what Chuck Wendig wants? For would-be writers to be eaten by coyotes fueled by bakery treats? I don’t know, I can’t peer into Chuck’s heart. Mainly because he’s yanked it out of his chest and put it on a sheet of paper on his desk.

Anyway, here’s hoping I work on my novel today instead of watching clips of all the Indiana Jones movies.

NaNoWriMo 2014 entry: Road Closed

After flailing about I have come to a decision on what to write for National Novel Writing month 2014 with a week to spare: Road Closed.

As with 2009, I am taking an unfinished short story and expanding it to short novel-length. There are a few differences this time. I am actively working on the story “Road Closed” while “The Ferry” had been abandoned many years prior. I also had planned on completing “Road Closed” before November 1, using it as my warm-up for the contest.

But with it already clocking in at 7,000 words and only just laying the foundation for the grisly meat of the story (ho ho) I realized I might be able to turn it into a novel by expanding certain aspects of the story while keeping the basic plot/framework in place.

I can’t say I’m optimistic about my chances of being successful, as my writing has floundered for most of the year. “Road Closed” began as a writing exercise back in January before being abandoned and it was only a few weeks ago that I dusted it off, chucked most of what I had written and dove back into it. But the intervening months did give me time to think about the story and I found a hook that eluded me. My intent is to keep the story light while dealing with alcoholism, death and dismemberment. We’ll see how it pans out in 36 days.