I have finally had a chance to sit down and finishing writing the first draft of The Pit, a short story I have been working on of late. It still needs a polish and I think the end needs a littlw work as well, but I am happy with the overall story beyond that. I have added it to the website for people to have a look at, in the Book of Deeds section.
Archive for January, 2009
I’ve added a new blogroll category to the page – Writer’s Links. As time progresses I will add further links to that category, but currently there are just two there.
Both deal with collections of markets for short stories (of numerous types), poetry, novellas etc. If you are interested in getting something published, such as a short story, and maybe even get paid for it (a small amount as it may be), then this is a good place to start.
Unlike back at the height of the era of short stories, you won’t make a lot selling them. It is more about getting published than anything – if you do get one published expect to make less for it that Robert E. Howard did for his first ever published short story. Weird Tales published ‘Spear and Fang’ in July 1925 for $16, which would go far further back then than it would now.
Still, the act of getting published is the notable part – someone thinks that your work is good enough to be read and hopefully it will lead to bigger things.
The Week in Review: Week One 2009
Posted: January 7, 2009 in writing updateTags: writing, writing update
Hard to believe but we are already one week into the new year. Just fifty one more to go.
In terms of writing output these weeks has been my most productive to date – around 14,500 words. Not quite at my stated goal of 20,000, but that it largely due to me not putting in a proper effort at times and get distracted when I shouldn’t have been.
Of that 9K was for a mostly completed synopsis/outline for the as of yet untitled work I started on New Years Day. The next question is if I continue on with it or, as normal, get distracted by something else.
The rest was scattered amongst various short storied in various stages of writing. Around 3250 words were on a new short story, called for now The Pit, that is getting close to being finished in the next day or two. When it is I will be posting it up for people to read.
The 11th Doctor has been announced and the new Doctor is…Matt Smith.
At 26 he is the youngest Doctor to appear in the 46 years Doctor Who has been running.
I will reserve my judgment, but so far he just doesn’t look like the Doctor. He looks a bit…metro. We will have to wait until 2010 to see how he goes though.
Second day of the year wasn’t as profitable as the first, as relatives were visiting the state and in the afternoon we were out for a meal, not getting home until just before midnight. A few hours of writing time were lost there.
Still, managed around 2500 more words in the morning, pushing the total to around 6500 for the first two days of the year, so we are still on overall schedule.
Part of that was the continuing serialised story of Cara’s Choice, a bit more was continued work on The Bronze Man short story, and around 1000 words was on the new, untitled, project (which is over 5000 words into the draft plot now). The way The Bronze Man is going – over 6000 words already – I fell it is more likely to end up a Novella than a Short Story when it is finished and then subsequently polished
Some great news to come out of the New Years Honours lists, with Terry Pratchett now Sir Terry Pratchett, having been knighted for services to literature.
Pratchett is best know for his Discworld series, of which there have been 36 books since 1983 – a phenomenal rate of writing.
He is also one of my favourite authors, in my top three without question.
Sadly he has recently been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimers., but he says he still has a couple of books in him.
Well, the first day of the new year has been and gone, and amazingly I kept to schedule. Possibly even ahead of it.
The total for the day was 4006 words completed at the end. Could have done more as there were a couple of hours where I got sidetracked by TV Tropes – bad me.
But if I keep that up the weekly goals should be achievable. Of course some days I’ll have more time than others, which is why that wasted time yesterday should have been put to better use.
Oh, and those 4000 words yesterday? I fell back into bad habits and started another new project. Well, sort of new. The story already existed in my head and in brief notes from way back. For some reason I felt inspired to start writing it. I really have to stop doing that.
It is a more traditional and less niche story than Winter Wolves though, so may have more appeal. Winter Wolves won’t be going away though.
Happy New Year to you all and welcome to 2009. It is bright and sunny here this morning, a good start to the year.
I’m not one to normally make new year resolutions – they invariably last all of a couple of days – but for this year I am setting out some goals I’d like to achieve. I’m not normally one to make plans or set goals either, but it is about time I did, get things moving along again.
Some of these are shorter term goals, others are year long goals.
Three Month Goals
In about three months I will need to start looking for work again, unless something extraordinary happens before then. I could go longer, but given the current economic climate that is about when I’ll have to start looking to give myself time to find something.
In the meantime I aim to write 20,000 words a week (or slightly less than 3,000 a day). Yes, it is an ambitious goal, but doable, and without ambition you can’t really get anywhere. I was reading of one author, back in the days of the pulps, who wrote 8,000 words a day, 7 days a week. We have advantages, such as computers, that he didn’t have, so I see no reason it can’t be done.
Write one short story per week/fortnight. Short stories range in length from 2,000 to 10,000 words, so it will probably be the later rather than the former in time frame. The reason for this is to get something finished and to have a break from the main novel when I need one.
Year Goals
Finish a novel or more. Hopefully more than one if I can keep up the pace of writing set.
Get an agent. That seems to be the main trick to getting published – finding a good agent. Dependent on finishing a novel though.
Get published. Isn’t that the dream of all authors? Mostly dependent on the previous step, getting an agent, though not always.
Learn the bagpipes. Truly the greatest instrument known to man – nothing compares to the sounds of massed pipes and drums. It it the one instrument above all others I want to learn, so hopefully this year.
Mist and Shadows 