wordwhacker

I've finally done it. Thirty straight weeks of writing a short story (or significant slice thereof) every week for thirty weeks. Last year when I tried this I got to twenty weeks before I had a brain fart and tanked. I took a break for a while after that. But this spring I started feeling pretty down on myself for not writing enough and decided that I needed to do this thing and see it through to the end.

I am REALLY glad I did, because now I have a body of work to edit and build on. But man, I am relieved that I'm through with it before the Christmas season (aka: Dinner Theatre MADNESS). Not to mention that I need to get my arse in gear and apply for grad schools, finish a few one-act plays, and complete my Sketchbook Project (*cough*which I haven't even started yet*cough*) - all by mid-January.

And I should probably plan my trip to Europe, too. Y'know, the one I'm planning to take in the late spring? Yeah. I'll get right on that.

ANYWAY, with the end of NaNoWriMo just around the corner (and one more short story to go to finish that off - I have no regrets about being a rebel), and with this thirty week challenge behind me, I am feeling pretty damn accomplished. I am allowing myself a whole five minutes to feel accomplished before the brainstorming/researching/gnashing of teeth begins again.

Written for word 148 over at 15_minute_fic.


Just a warmup before I do some brainstorming and outlining.


( It Always Takes More - flash, 489 words )

I'm up to thirteen weeks of writing for my tamingthemuse run. I'm really glad I'm doing it again. It's a strict enough deadline to keep me producing and thinking through new work on a regular basis without being too strict (aka: locking me into a particular setting, or fandom, or group of characters). Most of my stories have been really rough-cut runs this time around, which is fun now and then, but it doesn't usually leave me with a draft that I'm all that eager to work with because it needs SO much work.

Also: editing has been super slack. Lots of new stories = good. No progress on old stories = bad.

And then there's scripts. They also need some love.

Anyway, with that in mind, here are some writing goals for this month:

• channel the "write it rough" tendencies into weekly 15 minute fics


• do at least an hour of planning / outlining for the weekly tamingthemuse stories


• produce a new draft of an older story at least once a week


• flesh out the script version of A Bright Girl (which I'm calling "Clever Girl" but I'm sure that'll change at some point)


• submit at least three stories for publication

I've got a head start - I just finished my third draft of Rainy Day. I'm going to give it ONE more solid red pen treatment and then submit it to a couple of magazines. (I should probably come up with a better title for it. "Rainy Day" sounds pretty boring.)

Written for prompt 203 over at tamingthemuse.

Oh, Jess. Your introspective wrist-wringing is a veritable river of quick and dirty story fodder.


( Terms - flash, 1064 words )

Written for prompt 200 over at tamingthemuse.

It's about time I start posting the weekly stories here again, eh? I wrote this one pretty much off-the-cuff. I'm not planning to revisit it so I didn't bother to friends lock it. It was a slightly different narrative voice and story framing choice for me, kind of a fun experiment.


( Shoot Notes - short story, 1771 words, first draft )

Written for prompt 169 and prompt 170 over at tamingthemuse last year.

I was really busy when I wrote these, so I never got around to posting them on my actual writing journal. Spoilers for the game Portal, so don't read unless you've finished the game (or don't care.)

I don't write a lot of fanfiction, and I'm guessing that Portal isn't exactly the kind of fanfic source that immediately lends itself to a particular kind of prose. At some point in the near future I'm going to revisit this with an eye to really nailing the kind of narrative voice I'm looking for.


( Human After All - 'Portal' fanfiction, 4702 words, first draft )

Written for Prompt 198 - Year of the Pig over at tamingthemuse.

Trying to get back into the habit of writing every week. It's... taking some effort. I originally thought that I'd put some serious planning into this week's story, and then suddenly it was 3AM on Saturday and I had four hours left and dwindling patience. So I switched gears and gave myself about half an hour to just WRITE and see what happened.

And this is what happened.


( Horoscope - flash, 947 words )

I have four writing-related goals for next week:


1) Brainstorm, outline, and write the weekly story IN ADVANCE so I can really sink my teeth into it.

2) Write a 15 minute story to flex my "off the cuff" skills.

3) Finish draft 2 of one of the stories I wrote last year.

4) Get a (very rough) draft of the review I'm writing finished.


And then party. Or, y'know, party in and around these things.

Why I am allowed to make things that aren't perfect. (Thanks, epi_lj!)


In related news, I'm going to take up the tamingthemuse challenge again, starting this week - my life has felt decidedly empty since I stopped churning out short stories (or at least vignettes / flash pieces) at a regular clip. Part of me wants to try to develop more involved pieces, but it would also be fun to treat them as quick and dirty creative writing exercises. Like last time, I'll probably do a bit of both depending on the prompt and how busy I am in a given week. I'm aiming for 30 weeks again (which will take me through to the end of July).

Speaking of last time, I have 20 weeks' worth of stories to play with. Some of them need quite a bit of work, too. Time to sharpen the old editing claws.

I also want to have at least one 20 minute play to submit to the SJTC by February 28th, and that's going to take a bit of work. I had an idea for one last month that I jotted down in a notebook somewhere, and I wrote a few things for Script Frenzy last year that I might be able to tweak to an appropriate length (possibly including "Don't Jump!," though I'm not sure if that idea will fly as well as a longer play.)

And have I mentioned here my slowly-forming plan to write and somehow video-ify close readings of movies and suchlike? It's in the larval stages at the moment but definitely on my "must make this actually happen" list for the year.

And I'm reading a lot more - I have two novels on the go. Two! It's been years since I did that.


Anyway. Clearly I am keeping myself busy. Looking forward to another year of pushing myself and making things out of nothing.

Huzzah!



My last NaNo related project of the year (apart from the TGIO party this Saturday) is to put together an excerpt that can live on my NaNo profile all year [EDIT: it's up!] Prose-wise this was definitely THE ROUGHEST year yet (aren't I supposed to be getting better at this?). But it generated some ideas and the shell of a story that I definitely want to come back to some day - once I have done much, MUCH more pre-planning.

Will probably post again soon with my revised writing goals for the next month or so. Going to keep things light so I can focus on Christmas/Yuletide and applying for grad schools. I think it's going to be a focus on reading - "filling the well," as they say.

But anyway. NANO WIN!

Man, the last few weeks have just flown by. Lots of stuff going on. Here's a quick recap:

• Have been doing a weekly NaNo themed podcast, which you can find and listen to here. I've been promoting it on Facebook but I haven't been able to convince myself to be more present on the NaNo forums, where it would hit more of the target audience. I've also been too shy to approach people to be on it. But the editing and general production is getting easier, and I think it'll have been a worthwhile project in the end.



• NaNoWriMo is in full swing! I'm regretting (in some ways) my decision to write a novel instead of short stories this year, because I am stumped on the novel bigtime. I just don't think in novel terms these days and it requires so much planning, worldbuilding, etc. But it's coming. Don't expect to see anything posted here, though - this draft isn't so much "prose" as "long-winded brainstorming."



• Still writing the weekly short stories, though I haven't posted them here yet. I've been busy with NaNo and work and the podcast and organizing local events, so I've scaled the stories down into explorative flash pieces, usually written in the span of half an hour. If you want to read them, be my guest. (Will probably port them over here at some point.)

And also thinking about realy actually applying for grad schools really soon, honest. And thinking ahead to the end of my thirty week short story stint (TWENTY WEEKS DOWN!) which should be around January 23rd. And thinking about the shift from reckless writing to furious editing that will entail. And thinking about how I need to let myself do more reading, and broader reading, and silly reading, and serious reading. And thinking about how I want to start writing and recording essays about songs and movies and internet phenomena.

The days! They do not have enough hours in them!

One thing's for sure, though: I like being busy. Probably a good thing that this isn't about to stop anytime soon.