Watermarks

Been so crazy busy at work and dealing with my father’s business…and the electronic versions of my stories…well, I haven’t had any time to write anything. Also, at the moment, I’m questioning my abilities as a short story writer. So, I’m hoping to switch gears and write a new novel this month. Working title is called Statuesque. I’m hoping to get started on it over the long weekend. It’s going to be a fun fantasy romance type story, something I haven’t written in a while. Something I haven’t been able to even think about writing for over a year due to last year’s breakup. I’ve survived a lot of that pain and I would love to say I’m completely over it. Sadly, I’m not yet.

There’s still a great deal of pain left to overcome, but I’m better than I was this time last year. For the longest time, I couldn’t even look at anything involving romance. But this fun idea came to me a couple of weeks or so ago and I think I’m ready to give a romance novel a shot. I wrote out a synopsis just to crystallize the plot in my head and now, I’m ready to write it. Wish me luck!

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Trying to find my focus. I have been very distracted since the Oregon workshop, working on getting some of my short fiction available electronically. This process is unfortunately a lot of work. I’ve managed to get 11 stories available on Smashwords and Amazon. And I admit, it’s been a pleasant distraction from writing which isn’t going well. Just can’t seem to write anything that’s any good. Stories I really thought would do well have gotten the exact opposite reaction that I’d expected. Don’t know why my fiction still sucks after all these years and why everyone else seems to get better and I don’t. Maybe I should just keep writing stories, but stop sending them out? Maybe after writing a couple hundred more stories I will have moved a little bit forward. I love writing the stories; the rejections and continued failure are just really getting me down.

Sorry, downer post. This horrid dry spell is my worst on record and I just can’t seem to break it. Three years of no sales is a terribly long time. And it’s really getting to me.

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Okay, so way too much stuff going on, none of which is writing. But I’m experimenting with online fiction and have just posted my first short story to Smashwords. It was one published a number of years ago, so it was a good choice for this format.

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Got back Monday night, but have been too swamped with stuff to post. More Life Rolls craziness. Still dealing with my father’s business and the will stuff (being the executor) as well as my brother’s impending divorce and the job unrest. Things are changing too quickly to keep up with unfortunately. Started a new story, but haven’t managed to get past the first page yet. Maybe I’ll get more written this weekend. Workshop was very good and very insightful, gave me WAY too much to think about. With so little time left in my days, it will take me a good while to get going on some things. I need to write a business plan and do some other things related to my writing. These are things I need to think about without interruption, but that hasn’t been possible this week. argh!

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I was able to cut about 350 words from the story. Final title is Raven Among Angels. Still feeling uncomfortable with this story, but maybe that’s good. Will get it sent out tomorrow, I hope.

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Just now finished this one. This is the longest story I’ve written since 2003. Retitled for the moment to Confessor for the Dead. Weirdest story I’ve written in a while. Not even sure what to say about this one. At 8565 words, that’s gonna be a tough submission. Had no clue when I started this one that it’d be so long. Will come back to it tomorrow and read it all the way through, to see what I think about it.

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Wow, had no idea I’d be writing a story this long. I’m at 6900 words and going into the last scene. Where Bliss puts it all together and knows what she has to do. Sometimes this writing thing is crazy. Hope it doesn’t go much past 7500 words. We’ll see. I will take it to it’s conclusion and hope it doesn’t become a novelette. I had dinner with a couple of friends tonight after work, so I didn’t get home until nearly 9, so only had a little over an hour for writing tonight. I definitely will finish it tomorrow, maybe even during lunch tomorrow.

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The story’s at 6000 words and still has another scene or two to go. It will probably run up against the edge of 7K. Been a while since I’ve written anything this long. And yeah, I still feel really uncomfortable with it. Not sure why. It’s nothing really ground-breaking in content or structure. Just feels weird for some reason. Will keep at it though.

In other news, 2 rejections today. Got one back out. Debating on the other one. Resisting the urge to trunk it. It’s only been out to 3 markets so far, so I haven’t really given it a chance yet. Lisa chants “Heinlein’s Rules, Heinlein’s Rules” to herself. Off to bed.

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Got through most of the second act and I’m working on the transition into the final act of the story. Had to rework the opening structure a bit and get some better focus. Think I’ve got most of that worked out and was able to write more words. The story is over 4K now. I’ll probably finish it tomorrow night. Need to unwind a bit before Monday and the day job.

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Wow, put down another 1200 words tonight. The story’s at 3200 words and counting. It’s into its second act. I see the ending coming and I feel the excitement trickling in as I get closer to it. I hope it’s gonna be as cool as I see it in my head. I still feel that sense of awkwardness, but maybe, as my friend Vera put it, that’s a good thing.

Still haven’t gotten the story out that came back yesterday. Hoping to do that this weekend. Maybe I’ll even get that other novel out too. Gonna try at least.

Got another writer’s workshop coming up in a couple of weeks. REALLY looking forward to it. This is the best possible time for a break. I’m in desperate need of a scenery change right now.

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