Author: Richard Freeborn (Page 14 of 14)

I wonder if we ever really finish a story.

What I mean by that is something I’ve noticed during the short story challenge. I’ll finish the story, put it aside for a while. Sometimes only an hour or so if I’m close to the deadline. After that break I’ll read through, correct spelling and punctuation (I have a habit of throwing commas in everywhere during my first draft – usually when I pause the typing to frame the next sentence or paragraph. Probably ninety-percent of these get weeded out as I cycle through the story, but there are always a few that hide until the last minute), and tidy up any gaps or discrepancies I spot.

Very often, and this week’s story is a good example, I’ll send the story out, and then it’s like my mind looks at it from a different angle and says: Well, if you’d done it that way, the action would have started several pages sooner, and . . .

By this time I’m not sure if it’s the creative voice offering a solution to make the story better, or critical voice offering judgement to stop the story being submitted somewhere.

Too late critical 🙂

I may rework that story, but not this week. This week there’s a new story. It’s not much more than a fragment of an idea at the moment, but I will warn anyone reading this, that if I offer you a cupcake with icing, be very careful!

There were two separate and unconnected events that triggered this post. The first was a post by Dean Wesley Smith about deadlines helping overcome the fear of finishing a work, or submitting it, or publishing. The second was a comment on my sister’s blog where she talked about having several pieces of tapestry in her studio, all not quite finished and how having deadlines for exhibitions and contests provides the driver to make us finish.

I think it’s a multiple step process. About two years ago, when I decided I really needed to take my writing seriously I had six or seven short stories in various stages of completion. It was about the time I discovered, or maybe re-discovered, Heinlein’s Rules and it’s the second rule that applies here: You must finish what you start. I may come back to Heinlein’s Rules, but a lot of writers better than I am, and with more experience have written pages about those rules, so don’t hold your breath. Anyway, I spent a month going back and finishing those stories. They’re in a folder on a hard drive somewhere, and that’s where most of them should stay.

As I mentioned back in November, I began the short story challenge back in April. The weekly deadline of Sunday Midnight Pacific Time to get the story delivered is a powerful motivator, especially when linked to a long running streak. There’s been more than one occasion where I’m literally dozing over the keyboard after midnight Central Time (still got two hours because the deadline is Pacific 🙂 ), to get the story finished, read through and sent off.

I finished story forty-one this past weekend. Now I just have to apply those same principles to the novel I have in progress because there’s no external deadline. And that can be the real challenge.

I’ve been studying some techniques for writing faster and retaining quality. It’s been an interesting exercise and last week’s short story came together really fast. That may also have had something to do with the fact I could “see” the whole story in my head when I started writing, which doesn’t happen often.

This week isn’t going so well, partly, I think because I’m experimenting. I’ve never written anything that could be considered steampunk, and decided that maybe it was time to try. I’ll let you know how that goes.

More next week, once I’ve worked out where this story’s headed.

It’s a bit of a mixed bag as we come to the end of January. Some good, and some not so good.

Starting with the not so good, I’ll probably hit 20,000 words for the month, which is about half of target. I know that doesn’t sound much for those who regularly write five to ten thousand words a day, but I have written something new nearly every day this month. I also haven’t got very far with the Babylon mystery. I did revisit it on Sunday evening but I think it’s going to need printing out to really get my head back into the story. Ideally that means hooking up the laser printer which has sat in the closet for about a year, so any guesses on what nest of vipers that will expose? <bg>

On the positive side, I’m still on track with a story a week for the year, and up to thirty-nine consecutive stories in the overall challenge. Story number forty is under way as I type this. I’ve also logged five first submissions in January, which is my record for a single month, and the total submission in flight with various magazines is at or near an all time high. And I’ve written a blog post here every week of January – not on a consistent once every seven days basis, but I’ll aim to do better in February.

Well, Apple’s iBooks was more of a challenge than I expected, but I finally got through the agreements, and reviews, so Angels Without Faces will be available there later today.

The last week wasn’t as productive as I planned from a writing perspective. I did complete the weekly short story and started to read through the Babylon mystery to remind myself of what I’ve written, although nothing new got added. That’s for this week, along with the next short story!

2019 was definitely a year of change, although like many times of change, you don’t always see that when you’re in the middle of it. The biggest change as our move to Alabama from Florida, which raised some eyebrows and comments along the lines of “wrong way!” However, as parents age and need closer care and attention, it was clearly the right way!

I’d like to say the move didn’t impact my writing, but just looking back at my daily log tells the truth – barely 11,000 words in total for February and March, and then the Mystery Workshop in Las Vegas where I wrote 13,000 words in five days. So where did the year end up?

• Two stories accepted for publication – both Babylon mysteries
• Forty short stories completed
• A total of 213,000 words written, almost double the number of 2018

What I didn’t get done was finishing the Babylon novel, or putting any of those stories up for sale. That probably gives you a glimpse of my plans for 2020, but more on that next week.

According to those who apparently know, there are two types of writer. The plotter and the pantser. The plotter works everything out before they sit down and write the first draft. The pantser writes by the seat of their pants, or as I’ve learned, and prefer to say, writes into the dark. I suspect there’s a middle ground – the person who writes into the dark, but in the breaks between writing considers the options, and comes back with a plan for the next session,

I thought about that a lot this evening as I finished the most recent short story in my challenge. The idea was triggered by a tapestry I saw at Heallreaf, and started out as a traditional mystery set in London’s East End.

Except . . .

Fifteen hundred words in, I have a character, in a situation, with a problem, and I have no idea where we’re going. That’s part of the challenge, and absolute fun of writing into the dark. If I don’t know where the story’s going, how can my readers know?

It came together, as I’m learning it always will, although now it’s an Urban Fantasy Mystery!

I read a little while ago that it takes a hundred short stories for you to really get it. I’m at forty-eight stories, I really count as worthwhile, (even I can put creative voice aside and spot the really bad ones!), about halfway there. I’ll let you know what happens as I get closer to the hundred mark.

Stay tuned 🙂

Back in April, I attended one the WMG Mystery Workshops in Las Vegas. I wrote more in that weekend that I did in all of February and March. Around that time Dean Wesley-Smith announced a short story challenge – write and send a short story a week. I thought long and hard about whether to start the challenge because if I was going to do it, I had to mentally commit myself to 52 weeks of stories.

Eventually, as you’ve probably guessed, I signed up. This last weekend marked my 26th completed story. There’ve been a couple of duds in there but the stories range across all genres: mystery, fantasy, science fiction, romance, and two or three that don’t fit into any category.

The last couple of weeks were harder than usual because I was in England for a friend’s round number birthday party, and the tapestry exhibition my sister, Margaret, organized. This is the third Heallreaf Exhibition Margaret has put together, and the first I’ve attended. I don’t know if there’ll be a fourth. Margaret said after the first one, “never again,” and here we are at the third!

It was a conversation with Margaret about weaving techniques that generated a series of fantasy short stories I’ve written with a weaver as the central character. Margaret’s website is here.

Welcome to the first post. Stay tuned, there’s more to come.