Flash of Insight

Ahhh... Always at the strangest of times. I've figured out why my antagonists hate the humans, and probably turned my humans into the villians. At least as a race. Now to just get the story written.

New Challenge

Mike Munsil, creator of Liberty Hall Writers, has posted a challenge in the interim while they get the system working. It's a Short Story Cycle, based on a trigger he has provided. So if you haven't stopped by in a while, check it out. If you're not a member of the Hall, look into signing up. It's a great place to write and get feedback.

Using the trigger, I have a loose plot for the first 6 stories. Just need to figure out the 7th. May have to write a bit and figure the rest of it out before the last one comes around. I'm excited for this challenge. It ties in some settings/themes I had already wanted to use. Needs to be done by Feb 15th though, so I'm not sure how well I'll do in the time frame. All I can do is start writing and don't look up until all the stories are done.

Lost Pages

Finished the first draft for Lost Pages last night. Once I got to the middle of the story, it was flowing pretty well. As I mentioned earlier, I already wrote this story once. The climax came pretty easily, with only a few minor adjustments from last time. So now I just need to edit it, then out the door it goes. There is a polish challenge coming up at Liberty Hall soon, so I may post it there too.

My wife got me Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird for Christmas. I'm really enjoying the book. The best thing I've taken from it is she mentioned ABDCE.

A - Action

B - Background

D - Development

C - Climax

E - Ending

I hadn't heard of this before, but it really crystallized the project for me. I saw a clear delineation for each section. I'll be keeping it in mind for the future.

So now to edit the story. It definitely needs to be cleaned up. I'd like to have it submitted by the end of this week, but I think next week is a much more realistic goal. I'll keep you posted.

The words flowed like water

onto my paper. At least until I got too tired to hold a coherent thought together (not sure if the Pink Floyd was helping or hurting this). We stayed up for too late last night. Which was completely my fault. Sorry babe. Anyway, off to bed shortly, maybe I'll be able to catch up on some sleep. More writing to come tomorrow.

Another Monday

has arrived. I'm looking forward to getting back home.

I didn't write over the weekend. Largely, I was lazy. No other reason. I can very clearly picture several blocks of time where I could have been writing. I just need to keep reminding myself how I should be slicing up that free time.

Took the kids to the Carnegie museum with some of their friends on Sat, which was a lot of fun. Then on Sunday we took them both to the live show Elmo Grows Up. They both loved it. Though I got a good laugh at the parents readily shelling out $15 for an elmo balloon, which is most likely out of helium today. Next weekend is Tori's birthday, which I'm hoping she'll enjoy.

From the ashes...

Comes a story.

I've written this story before. Had it accepted for publication. Then the magazine folded. While I was a bit disappointed at this, I think it will work out better this way as I can change the story now. Truly make it my own. Previously, it was set it another world, governed by the laws of that world. Now that the magazine is no more, I can do what I want with it.

Oddly, this is turning out to be tougher than I thought it would. At first, I thought simply going through and changing locations would be enough. It's not. I'm still ironing out some things in my world. So while I know the story, a lot more complications are rearing their ugly heads. I'm not entirely sure at which point in time I want to start the story anymore. I had a 3k limit on the story previously, so I had to cut some things. Now the flood gates are open. We'll see how it goes.

Free Fiction: Title

Free Fiction Here!