Okay! Welcome back to my brain.
A few years ago I set out to write one story every day in September. It didn’t quite work out, but I did get seven stories written–and at the time that seemed truly wonderful. I had a blast writing them, and I still remember that month as one of the most exciting times in my writing-fiction experience to date.
Things are very different now. Then, my wife and I had no children and were living on a boat in Alaska. Today, we live in a ridiculously large house in Texas with one biological child, one child we hope to adopt if we can talk her into it, and a varying number of foster kids. Then, I loved to write but knew very little about how to get it done. Today, I think I have a pretty good idea of what it takes–but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to arrange my life to make it happen. Still…
Yeah, you guessed it. I’m going to try again. I’ll need first-thing-in-the-morning time every day, which means I’ll need to wake up even earlier than I have been. I’ll need other time, too, which will have to be juggled with various appointments and errands and homeschooling (for one) and cuddling and washing lots of dishes.
I’m still not sure how I’ll handle the finished product(s). Will they all be indie-published? Will some be sent elsewhere? What about designing covers and writing blurbs and copyediting?
Also, how do I make this interesting for you guys? I could throw each story up for a day, as a sort of beta-test thing, but would you guys really read them? Well, maybe a few of you would read a few of them. The most obvious downside I can see to that scheme is that it means the stories would technically have been published, which may limit my options a bit when I get around to licensing them elsewhere.
Maybe I can just leave it up to you? Each day I could post a description of the current story, and ask if you’d like to read it. If you’re interested, you could leave a comment or shoot me an email, and then I could send a link…but this sounds like a lot of hassle. And a lot of inbox-flooding for those of you who aren’t interested.
Tell you what: I’m going to post story blurbs as I go. If you want to read a story, let me know and I’ll send it to you. I won’t publish any of them elsewhere until the month is over, and any feedback you feel the urge to send will be greatly appreciated.
Hey, can you guys tell that I’m dictating this post? Instead of typing it? Maybe you can, and maybe not. But that’s another thing I be doing next month–all fiction will be dictated, at least in a rough-first-draft form. By that I don’t mean that I intend to go back and “polish” the stories, or do any other type of heavy editing either. I mean that I’ll dictate the fiction into Notepad on a Windows computer, then copy/paste it elsewhere, and I’ll fix any glaring typos at that point. I figure time spent editing is time better spent creating something new. Maybe that’s ridiculous? Could be. I don’t really care; I just want to get better at it.
You’ll hear from me soon. If life interferes again, so be it. Even “failure” is bound to result in more storytelling fun for me, and maybe even for you guys. I’ll do my best.
Have fun out there!
Be First to Comment