Tag: Writing Inspiration

Weekly Writing Update — November 15, 2023

Gandalf the Wizard from Fellowship of the Ring movie: text says: When you come back to finish your story after too long of a break. Text at bottom says: I have no memory of this place.
Image Source: https://www.autocrit.com/blog/12-writing-memes-brighten-monday/

Brandon Sanderson, the bestselling author, has a YouTube channel and one of the pieces of content that he posts to his channel is a short weekly update on the status of his writing projects. I’ve tried to do the same basic idea in the past on the blog, but let it slide because I could never replicate his process exactly . . . and I’m not nearly as consistent as I once was because of finishing the Ph.D. process along with the pandemic and other factors, I’ve moved away from blogging consistently. However, I’ve determined that is/was a bad move in that blogging helps to force me to be creative by making sure that I write creatively on at least a semi-regular schedule (or even, gasp 😱, a regular schedule). So, I’m going back to these weekly writing updates. I may use the same protocol that we use in our departmental meetings where if we’ve nothing to report on that week, we say “nothing to report,” or something similar, so if I’ve not made progress on a specific area from we to the next, don’t be surprised if there is a “nothing to report” or similar wording. The goal of this type of blog is to “encourage” me to focus on my writing as an avocation by cataloging a week’s worth of work (or to put it another way, to help me push forward on my writing goals one small step at a time and recording that journey weekly). I will generally focus on 3 main areas of writing: Short Project(s), Long Project(s), and Scholarly Project(s). There will likely be a 4th area every now and again called, Ideas, but I’m VERY good at generating ideas. For me, success (in writing) is moving a project beyond the idea phase into the drafting phase, finishing it, and get it published. While each “phase” is important (idea, drafting, finishing, submission/publication), I don’t consider a project a “success” until it is published.

Short Project = Project Uplift (Sci-Fi)

This is a project that I started seriously at the end of 2021 and worked on in 2022. I was able to do a rough draft that had 3 sections. When it came time for the working draft, I was only able to complete one section (the 1st section) of about 2500 words. I got stuck about halfway through the 2nd section at about 1500 words and finally put it away. This week, I completed a CHARACTER SKETCH for the main character/protagonist (currently named Vangelis). While the name might change, the character is locked in and should inform the next draft of the story. I did NOT have a character sketch while I was working on the working draft last year and it is possible that is why that draft faltered.

Also did some ruminating on the title. I’m not sure Uplift is the best title. In my story, “uplifting” has a definite meaning, but there is already a sci-fi concept of “uplifting” that is totally different from my usage of the word. I’m afraid editors/readers will confuse the already established use of “uplift” with my unique usage of it. It may be better to change the name of the project, but I’ve not yet come to a decision.

Long Project = Unhallowed Graphic Novel

This one was a bit of a mistake. I started writing two graphic novels based off the recent publications of two of my short stories (i.e., exercising my own copyrights by creating expanded derivative works on the short stories that I’ve already published). The two projects are Unhallowed and Childe Roland. I started Unhallowed, but put it down and started working on Childe Roland as I felt it would be the easiest of the two to adapt and as I’ve not adapted a completed story before/completed a full graphic novel (just one comic book story/issue), I wanted to something to practice with. However, when I grabbed the folders, I inadvertently grabbed the one for Unhallowed rather than Childe Roland. Rather than wait a week to go back and grab the correct folders, I just started on Unhallowed and will work on this one until completion.

I worked on a story map for issue 1 of the graphic novel (“The Warden”). This story map was fairly easy as it is mostly the short story adapted into 28-32 pages of comic book script. The challenge is going to come from mapping out the next 3 issues as I only have a vague idea where the story should go from there. I do want to include the main character’s (Arizona’s) backstory somewhere in the graphic novel, but I’m not quite sure where to put it. Feedback told me that the backstory slowed down the pace of short story, so I took it out. I’m thinking it needs to go in issue 2 or 3, but I’m not sure where to put it so that it doesn’t kill the flow of the story.

Scholarly Work

This week I made sure to complete a 150-250 word abstract for the Call for Papers for the Tennessee Philological Association as the deadline was November 18th. I try to attend their conference yearly–this year’s them is children’s literature–and this year I’d finally read a children’s book that I’d been wanting to purchase for a while now, The Girl with the Silver Eyes, a 1980s book about psychic powers. I created the rough draft for a paper about psychic powers in children’s literature. At the time of reading the book, I was also engrossed in a video game about psychic powers called Scarlet Nexus and I saw several overlapping similarities between the two mediums/stories. I’ve also seen/interacted with other psychic power stories over the years and it will be interesting to continue to develop this idea into a larger article should the conference paper prove viable.

Well that’s all that I have for this week. This was a productive week, and I was able to get a fair amount of writing done. I hope it continues! See you all next week.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • Read Skin Deep (Science Fiction) for Free at Aurora Wolf
  • Read Childe Roland (Fantasy) for Free at Electric Spec

Currently Working On (November 2023)

Creative

  • The Runner (2022 Revision) (Fantasy Story–4100 words)
    Status: Out to Publisher, Finalist in the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest, Finalist in LeVar Burton Reads Origins & Encounters Writing Contest
  • Science Fiction Story (1st Draft)
    Status: Section 1 of 3 completed
  • Fantasy Graphic Novel Story (1st Draft)
    Status: Prologue Completed

Scholarly 

  • Dissertation Completed
    Status: Published!
  • Unnamed Book Chapter
    Status: Out to Publisher!
  • Blood on the Shield: African American Trauma in Falcon and the Winter Soldier
    Status: Published!

July & August 2022 Writing Update

Images and Words drawn on green "blackboard" with white chalk. 1) Images of textbooks with an apple on. top. 2) Image of a paper airplane with dash lines out of its back to denote movement. 3) Works that say, "Back to School"
Image Source: https://cjuhsd.net/apps/news/article/1255546

I know that it is almost halfway through the month, but I got a wonderful comment on one of my previous Writing Update posts that indicated that these were helpful, so I really want to get back to/keep doing these. I’m sorry that I’m so erratic with these blog posts (both updates and other posts), but I’ve learned that Covid has been awful for my 1) work/life balance and 2) production. Brandon Sanderson, currently my favorite writer, has said that stress has a positive effect on his writing life. I’ve discovered that it is totally opposite for me. I’m far better when everything is stable and I have a routine. When I have a routine, I seem to be able to source “work” at work areas/times and “recreation” at non-work areas/times. When these two areas of my life are merged, I’ve discovered that too much of one area bleeds into the other area. This works both ways–I couldn’t get to sleep on Saturday night (July 9) because I was thinking about projects that I wanted to work on, and I also almost went to bed last night (July 10) after 1am-2am last night because I wanted to get up and work on this particular blog post (knowing that it was already midnight). Before Covid, this would have never been a thing–I would have written the blog at breakfast time or when I finished my “workday” (whatever those hours were). Anyway, you’re here for the writing stats, so here we go!

Creative Writing (July/August)

Citizen X: This one is a strange project. I worked on it through June and did approximately 1000-1600 words on in it by writing new material and then integrating material from older drafts that I felt was still relevant. However, I wasn’t having any fun with this story. I dreaded working on it. It was then I realized that it was character problem. I didn’t really enjoy the character–I wasn’t interested (i.e., I was bored) with reading about the character. I wasn’t having any “fun” writing about the character because I felt, based on a critique of the story, that I needed to get rid of the alternate reality version of Langston Hughes that I envisioned for this character. The reason why is that whole “this is a work of fiction and any character you see is not based on a real person — dead or alive” for films, television, and novels. I then created a bland character with a changed name. This caused massive problems because I did not enjoy the writing process with this bland character.

I “fixed” this problem by keeping the protagonist, but completely changed the way I thought of him. Rather than someone who was self-confident and a “poet,” (like Langston Hughes was) I re-imagined him as a youngster who was only doing what he was doing because of the death of a family member. I imagined the protagonist as a “reluctant hero,” taking up the mantle, not because he wanted to, but because he felt he had to do so, and that’s made a world of difference. I started a re-write (again). Even though this is probably the 3rd or 4th rewrite of the beginning of the story, I’m 600 words in and I like where this is going. My goal is 3 sections at approximately 1000 words each for a story of 3000 words (again, all approximately). I’m on track to finish it by August.

August Update: Yeah, August may be a little ambitious. I have several other writing projects (mostly academic) that are probably going to get in the way of me finishing by the end of August. Hopefully, I will be done with the story by September (Labor Day), which would be more fitting for the story actually, but I’m in the midst of a myriad of projects and I’m not sure how much work I’m going to be able to devote to Citizen X.

Other Projects: I’ve started other projects (all ones that I envision will be lead to a graphic novel), but I’ve not made much progress. I have a graphic novel adaptation of Sister Knight (no longer in print/available on the web) that I started ages ago called KnightWatch, but I don’t think I’m going to work on that one any time soon. I thought I would work on the graphic novel adaptation of WarLight as I started it in the Spring 2022 semester, but I’ve not yet got back to it. Lastly, I have a “new” story for a project that I’ve not written as a short story that is just called “Project Ranger.” I did some pre-writing Saturday (July 9) and I’m guessing that’s the one I’m going to work on. The problem is that I don’t know whether that should be a graphic novel or a screenplay as there is a lot of “movement” going on and graphic novels are all about static images that imply movement, while screenplays are all about movement on-screen leading to an emotional journey.

August Update: I’m probably going to have to “flip a coin” and just choose one of these three projects. I will probably do all of them (including “Project Ranger”) as graphic novels just because it is easier to do a “page” per day. A “page” for me, when I write comic scripts, consists of anywhere from 3-7 panels (paragraphs laying out description of setting/action, dialogue, and panel description). While I can sometimes be pretty intricate with those, doing a page doesn’t really take all that long (30 mins to hour–sometimes less). It’s just that at 90 pages or more, you’re looking at a 3 month creation time if you stick to 1 page a day). I currently have the most written on KnightWatch (approx 8-10 comic pages), WarLight has (2-3 comic pages, but as it is a “sequel” to one of my short stories, Sister Knight, I know these characters VERY well. “Project Ranger” is the most tentative of the three stories, but it is also one of the most dynamic. I really think that I have the protagonist “dialed in” on this one.

Academic Writing

Dissertation: This is where I’ve spent the bulk of my summer (rightly so!). I’d hoped to finish before the summer ended, but I’ve gone absolutely “bananas” on Chapter 2. I’d just intended to talk about Black Panther before moving on to other Afrofuturistic works, but when I got into Black Panther, I realized there was quite a bit to analyze. I decided to analyze the movie scene-by-scene. While this initially proved fruitful, there’s just so much that I want to say and so much that I’m finding to analyze, I’ve gotten “lost” in the Black Panther forest. My Chapter 2 is currently 18k words and climbing. I was at 15k words when I realized that I had a problem and I’m still writing.

August Update: I’ve decided that I’m going to do 2 more scenes. If I manage to finish up before 20k words, then great. However, if I go over 20k words, then I’m going to find a way to gracefully end the analysis of those 2 scenes and then send it to my dissertation director. I apparently need “help” and I’m going to ask him to help me in shaping this chapter, either by trimming it down, or by letting me know specific scenes that I may have missed and scenes that I may have included that could be “cut.” This is truly the “hold-up” on my dissertation. I’ve done way more that I probably should have in this chapter, and I’m not sure where to stop.

Other Projects: I have another writing project for UNA as well. I’m not sure that I can talk about it although it was a listed as a Call For Papers (CFP) a while back. I’ll just say that it covers Star Trek and leave it at that. I’ve been working on it, but I finally had a breakthrough. I need to go back and just re-outline some of the characters that I want to include. I think that’s the real issue–I’ve not really locked down which characters are the most important to analyze and I’ve been a little scattershot and all over the place. Once I lock down who’s going in and who’s not and the rationale for each, I think I’ll have a better, more consistent “argument” and the writing will go a lot faster.

August Update: Yeah, this is true, but I forgot about classes, syllabi, and being President of TPA (TN Philological Association) this year. As well as 1st year University of North Alabama (UNA) staff member. I’ve got a lot more commitments that I would really like, so time is of the essence. I have until Aug 31 to turn in the chapter, but that’s a lot closer than it seems, so I’m going to have to try to really make sure that this chapter is both good, but manageable as I don’t have time to be “perfect,” because I cannot deliver it late. I’m going to have to find a way to write smart, but not get too precious with it, something that I struggled with on Chapter 2 of my dissertation.

Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully, this will tide you over until my September update where I can hopefully give you good news on the status of some of these (many) projects.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (June 2022):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • Citizen X (Alternate History Science Fiction Story)
    Status: Drafting–1000 words (approx)

Coming Soon: The Independent in Mythic Magazine

Mythic Magazine Cover: One spaceship coming toward the reader being fired on another spaceship from behind.
Source: https://www.mythicmag.com

So, I was wondering what the status was for Mythic Magazine after seeing that Duotrope re-listed the magazine and showing their status as “open” for accepting new stories. I cruised the site and was so pleasantly surprised when I saw the above image! Since the days of Dragonhawk, when I first saw the practiced used, I thought it was so cool to have authors names featured on the cover, letting readers know whose stories are inside. Now, while Dragonhawk was a fine story, for me, it marked my transition from writing and publishing as something of a “hobby” into more of an “avocation.” However, I was new enough and their were more seasoned writers, that I was just happy to have a story inside the magazine. I have to admit, however, their is a certain thrill when your name is featured on the cover!

Mythic Magazine Issue #19

Originally, I think my story was to appear in issue 18, but I more than okay with the delay as there was a period when I didn’t think it was going to appear in Mythic at all. For those who don’t know, over the holidays, the editor of Mythic decided to close the magazine. However, thanks to the alternative funding methods of Patreon and Kickstarter, it looks like Mythic is back on its feet and is moving to a monthly publishing format. As I’ve said in another blog post, I’m planning on also helping out by donating a portion of my earnings back to him by buying a subscription. In fact, Mythic’s plight was driven home to me, as a lowly writer, by this particular scenario. So much so, that I intend to do this from now on with ALL of my future publications. I do this with books, I almost always buy 1-3 copies of anthologies (even if I’m gifted one as part of my “fee”) to 1) make sure I have a copy of my publication but 2) to help out the author. I sometimes buy one for my mother who wants a copy and on occasion, I’ll buy a 3rd for someone who has expressed interest in my work. I sometimes only get 1-2 copies of a small press publication (usually for myself and my mother), but I really want to support small presses. While I’m still a student and much of my money goes for other things: mortgage, utilities, bills, etc., I now realize how important it is to support the arts in a way that makes sense for my limited budget. I can (and should) take the time to support those venues who have taken an interest in my works so that they too can survive and thrive.

The Old Inspiring the New

To be honest, even though I have what I feel is a good foundation for a story for Citizen X, my new story that I’m working on, I’ve not really been inspired to work on it nor do the hard work that has allowed my writing to get better, such as Character Sketches, going through a “Writing Cycle,” using a simple story map, etc. This is crucial for me to do the “deep thinking” about my stories that have allowed me to grow them into better stories. However, just from this one cover image alone, I now feel renewed as an “author” and I feel ready to dive in and do the hard work required to make this next story, Citizen X, a success. For me, I guess that’s the real power of publication. Not for the vanity of seeing ones work “in print,” but to remind and inspire you on to your next work–where you may do even better as you will be a more “experienced” artist.

Well, that’s all I have time for today. I’ll do another blog post when the issue is actually released celebrating the issue’s (and stories) release. Have a great day!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (January 2022):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4000 words)
    2022 Revision; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4400 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

State of Writing 2021 — Yearly Summary

Source: https://www.ayudainc.org/craft-research-paper/computer-history.asp

I got the idea for this blog post from a couple of different places. Two YouTube channels that I watch do “State of” videos to showcase their own interests: one writing, the other gaming. PlayStation also does a “State of Play” to showcase upcoming games, so I thought I’d use this forum to talk about the year that has passed in terms of my writing, especially since I had a 3 month long break from the blog. This won’t be in-depth, but will give a “snapshot” of the year that has just passed.

Stats

I sent out 3 stories last year: Unhallowed, The Independent, and The Runner. According to Duotrope, I sent out the stories a total of 12 times total for the year. Of the those 12 submissions, I had 1 Acceptance and 11 Rejections. However, this stat is a little misleading, as I will explain shortly. I didn’t jot it down, but I think the percentage of Acceptances to Rejections was (guesstimating) 7.21% or something similar (this is from memory–yes, I could do math and figure it out–my Mac’s calculator says 8.3% approximately, but it is obviously under 10%). Yet, even under a 1 in 10 chance, my average was STILL higher than the “average” of people submitting on Duotrope. This is why writing is so discouraging–in American Baseball, you’re a good “player” if you hit in the “250s” (2.5%), a great player if you hit in the 200s (280s-290s), and an exceptional player if you hit significantly over 300 (325-330s). That’s 3 hits out of every 10 swings. Now, compare that with writing where you’re getting 1 in 12 (less than 1 time for every 10 submissions) and that’s considered good. That’s why writing (& particularly publishing) is so demoralizing and why so many have left that traditional model for self-publishing. Okay, editorializing over.

Now let’s look at the individual stories:

Unhallowed

So, this is my Weird West fantasy story featuring an African American female bounty-hunter, Arizona. This story went out 7 times in 2021. While I did send it to 1 major market in 2021, for the most part, the rest were middle range markets. It was rejected all 7 times, but 1 market, Mythaxis, liked it and sent me a personal rejection letter. Basically, they felt it was too long for publication in their magazine. As a writer, I felt that, had the story been shorter, I would have had an excellent chance of getting it accepted for their publication. While they didn’t offer the option to revise and submit, I went through and I eliminated 2 of the 3 sections with backstory elements for the story (I felt I needed the first backstory section to explain the world/worldbuilding of the story as that’s where it all happens). I cut it down from 6, 600 words to 4, 400 words, and it is currently out to its next market with this trimmed down version of the story. If it gets accepted and published somewhere, my goal is to utilize the “origin” story to create a Graphic Novel/Comic Book adaptation of the story (for my longer, original vision).

The Independent

This one is a complicated one. This is my “Space Truckers” story. It only had 2 submissions for 2021. It was accepted by Mythic, a market I’d been trying to sell to for quite a while (at least since I started writing again “professionally” when I started blogging). I heard that I was accepted shortly before I started my new job as a Visiting Scholar in Residence. I was ecstatic! I signed the contract and focused on the job.

However, time went by and hadn’t heard anything. Then, a few days before Christmas, I got an email from the editor informing me that he was closing Mythic. The last issue was to be #17 and my story had been slated for #18. I was, of course, gutted, but also prosaic about it. The last thing I’d want is for someone to bankrupt themselves trying to fulfill a dream when it is obvious that the dream is “drowning them.” Something I learned during my time as a PhD student is: “if you’re in a hole, stop digging.” I wished the editor well and got on with my holidays, resolving to find a new market and send it out after the Christmas/New Year’s Holiday.

After the holidays had passed, I printed out a copy of the story, to do my new routing of an “Annual Revision Pass”over the story, when I got another email from the editor. He wanted to continue the publication (just in a smaller format), but wanted to know if I still wanted to publish the story in the magazine. Of course I did, so I agreed, and that’s where we are right now.

Last I saw, he was running subscriber drive/Patreon drive for the magazine. I don’t normally do this, but how about throwing him a few “bones” (slang for dollars) if you have any extra money. I’ll probably end up donating at least a part my own “fee” back to him for at least a 1 year subscription. Anyway, here’s a link to his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mythicsffmagazine/

The Runner

This is a new fantasy story that I finished this year. It is a story about a fictional human civilization on an island with creatures that the humans consider deities. This story was submitted to the LeVar Reads contest in August of 2021. I felt like the story had a good chance as it met all the requirements of the contest page and was really fun to write. Also, it didn’t have (or need) a complicated backstory to fill in the world, so I could just concentrate on the characters and the plot. This one was a MAJOR “almost” as I came very close with this one. There could only be 3 winners (a first place and two runners-up). Out of the 708 submissions to the contest, I made it to the FINAL round of 12. LeVar read those 12 stories (mine and 11 others) and made the final decision. I, unfortunately, wasn’t one of the eventual winners, but as the “rejection letter” proudly noted, my story made it the Top 2% of stories for this particular competition. Essentially, I was able to make it to the Olympics, but I wasn’t able to bring home a medal (to continue the sports metaphor from earlier). Still, my only goal for this competition was to have my story read by LeVar Burton and I accomplished this goal, so while I’m disappointed of course that I didn’t “win,” my story was good enough to do what I hoped it would: have a celebrity like LeVar at least read some of my work!

So that’s it. A fairly in-depth recap of my year in writing. I’m working on a new story now. Hopefully, I will be able to add it to the State of Writing 2022 summary next year!

Have a great one!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (October 2021):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4400 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

Author’s Note: The Runner

Tarahumara man with headband and pole, running on a brown dirt road with green trees in the background.
Image Source: https://ultrarunninghistory.com/tarahumara/

It’s been a while since I was able to update everyone on my writing journey. However, I am happy to announce that I finished another story this year! The story is titled, The Runner, and it was formerly known as “Project Runner.” I’ve added it to my list of projects finished at the bottom of my “Signature” line. It is currently under consideration to a market. While I will talk a little more about the inspiration, drafting, and deadline for this piece, I just want to say that I’m fairly proud of myself for meeting the deadline for this work under some fairly trying circumstances. Even if it doesn’t manage to do all that I hope that it can accomplish–i.e., the compromises that I had to make due to time– I still think that I like the piece and how it ultimately turned out.

Inspiration

This piece has a number of inspirations and no one inspiration was more important than another. They all sorta’ blended together to help me come up with the story. There are too many to mention here, but I did want to talk about a couple of the more interesting ones.

The first one is the idea of a “Spear-Bearer.” I’ve always been interested in the “bo staff” and I was intrigued with the way Brandon Sanderson essentially takes a master of the bo staff and turned Kaladin into a spear-bearer in his Way of Kings novel. I, too, wanted to have a hero who was a master of the staff and created a female character (islander) who was good at the staff. However, being an islander, she would most definitely use a spear and not a staff due to the fishing community that her people would have started as in their history on the island, so I made my hero a spear-bearer as well.

Another one is the idea of a “Runner.” I knew that this hero would run the length of the island. I was already creating a running character when I happened across the development of a video game that described a Mexican culture (Tarahumara) that actually has “runners” as their warriors. The video game, Mulaka, had a developer’s diary video on the Playstation channel that helped me figure out that my “runners” weren’t warriors, per se, but more like “police/ambassadors.” They kept the peace between the human tribes and the fractious non-human “gods and demons.”

Finally, the major inspiration for this story was a tourism video on Vimeo about the island of Bali. Bali is actually known as the “island of gods and demons” and as a history minor (and some one who knows quite a bit about the world’s mythologies, I’d not heard that and was super curious to find out more. After I read about Bali a little more (I’d known of it, but not in a major way–my parents were meticulous on social studies as were my elementary school’s textbooks–while I can’t tell you exactly where every country is, I can generally point out on a map the general location of most countries in the world). I remember thinking that about the phrase “gods and demons” and taking it into my “Dungeons and Dragons” experiences and wondered what if these “gods and demons” were actually just fantasy races that were thought to be “gods and demons” because of their influence on the island. This really kicked the formation of the story into high gear and it was my need for a way to have the humans come to understand that these other races weren’t really “gods and demons” that drove me to create my hero and the story itself. I don’t have access to the original video, but here is a representative video from YouTube that shows the beauty and majesty of the island.

Drafting the Story

So, this was one of the stories that I worked on over the summer with my new way of working/writing. I took the summer to do all of the “Pre-writing” for this story. I worked on my story outlines, I worked on my character sketches, I worked on writing down a “rough draft” in my notebook (hand-written). I then transferred that hand-written rough draft to my computer. And I wrote a “possible” first paragraph for the story.

I set it aside and then I did the same for several other stories this summer. I then saw a “submission call” in which a TV personality was teaming up with a magazine to do a competition for stories that dealt with several subjects, with “gods” being one of those subjects. I decided that this would be a perfect time to go ahead and complete this project and try for this particular competition.

The deadline was fairly tight (August 31), but I was helped by the shortness of the piece. I’d wanted to make it more elaborate, but I didn’t have the time, so I stuck with three sections, a beginning section that worked as exposition and inciting incident, a second section that worked as raising the stakes, and a third section that worked as climax and resolution. I didn’t really have problems drafting the story, except that I found that I needed to add a section “3.5” in order to get to the resolution and anti-climax. I’d envisioned a much grander (cinematic) fight scene, but I just didn’t have the time. Instead of “war” between the three factions (gods, demons, and humans), I had to settle for a fairly terse personal challenge between three representatives of the factions. Still, I think that it worked out well.

Deadline

The deadline for the story was submission no later than 11:59pm on August 31st. I’d written approximately 800 words or so before I saw the listing–most of the first section. I devoted several days throughout the middle of August working on section 2. It was here that I realized that I was going to have to scale down the story I had in my mind and eliminate a couple of the longer scenes (running from village to village) in order to meet the deadline.

I promised a draft to one of the Writing Center consultants who wanted to read the story and who offered to give me feedback. Since the 31st was on a Tuesday, I worked most of the weekend on Section 3 and finished it and sent it to her so that she could give me feedback. I integrated the feedback on Tuesday afternoon and sent it off. I probably won’t hear anything back until late Sept. (if I didn’t make the 1st round), or mid-October, if I did make it to the 2nd round (2nd round are the “winners”–3 stories, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place).

Overall

Overall, I have to say that even if the story isn’t chosen, I’m happy with it. It may get a 2022 “revision” (I plan to read over all my stories that haven’t sold and revise as necessary), but mostly I’m happy that I was able to write and finish the story in a reasonable amount of time (about two months, give or take a week or two) and get it off in time to meet the deadline. I’m working on “Project Wall” now, but that is going much slower because I’m devoting more writing time to the dissertation and teaching my classes. I’ve not yet figured out how to “re-intergrate” creative writing with dissertation writing. It seems to be either one or the other (The Runner was written during the time when my director was looking over my Introduction and while I was doing the edits for the intro). My mind seems to only want to focus on one project or the other, so maybe when I finish Chapter 1 of my dissertation, I can move to “Project Wall” and make progress on it as I did with The Runner.

Anyway, there’s a look at my process for this story! I hope that it might be helpful to other writers out there! Have a great day!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (September 2021):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4000 words)
    Completed: 2021; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–6600 words)
    2021 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story–3500 words)
    2021 Revision: Completed.
  • To Dance the Sea of Storms (Fantasy Story)
    Prewrite: Completed, Plan & Outline: Completed, Write a first draft: Completed, Revision: In Progress

Having Summer Fun: The Writing Way

Be a Summer Writing Ninja Earn Your Black Belt by Writing Throughout the Summer. Pow! I'm going to write my way to a black belt. Cartoon karate figure with pencil and post it notes around him.
Image Source: https://twowritingteachers.org/2017/05/05/keep-the-learning-going/

In America, summer doesn’t actually correspond to the dates indicated by the calendar, or at least, not the “official” dates. Rather, like a story, summer in America has a traditional beginning, middle, and end, and those dates are marked by holidays. Here in America, Memorial Day, the day when we celebrate the fallen military heroes and veterans who have served in the Armed Forces, is actually our start to summer. This is mandated by federal law as the last Monday of the Month of May and is often called, “the unofficial start to summer,” especially in order news media. Independence Day, on July 4th, basically acts as a mid-point to the summer season in America, while Labor Day, the day set aside to honor the contributions of workers and laborers in the US, acts as our ending date (as most schools, K-12 along with college are back in session either before, by, or right after this holiday).

I set all that up to let you know what I’m terming as “summer” for this blog. Summer, to me, has always been one of my favorite times of year. Yes, the insects are often ferocious and the summer heat and humidity are legendary here in the southern US, but it is a time where both my body and mind truly feel alive. I have, in the past, done a fair bit of writing in the summer (my first published short story and article were written in the Tennessee summer heat). So, whenever possible, I also try to figure out strategies of maximizing my summer writing output.

And I’m back at it again this summer!

Rough Draft (1993)–Rough Drafting by Hand in a Legal Pad

My first ever published short story begin its life in a yellow legal pad at the old, decommissioned library at U.T. Knoxville one winter day during the Spring semester way back in 1993. I was taking a creative writing class and we did multiple genres: poems, plays (scripting), short stories, etc. I needed to turn in a draft in about a couple of days, but couldn’t think of anything, so I went to the building, which I’d just found about 2-3 week prior and started drafting. Anime had just become a thing and I’d seen an Americanized episode of DragonQuest (animated show?) that had an incredible magic duel between two wizards/magic-using characters and I wanted to write something similar.

So, my first draft, written in my yellow legal pad and in red ink (an affectation I had at the time), was written in a night (approximately an hour or so), with very little description, and mostly dialogue. I was probably less than 250 words in total. A couple of days later (or maybe the next day, I can’t recall), I went to the “real” library (the current one with all the glass and right angles), and typed up my story. While I added a little, here and there, especially in dialogue and description, the story itself was essentially the same that I’d wrote in my legal pad–just typed up and expanded slightly. I’d estimate it was approximately 450-500 words in total.

I turned it in and it was workshopped, and low and behold, I got an A- on it! The professor’s main objection was the “neatly tied-up” ending, which she would have preferred to be a little more ambiguous to reflect real life. I was over the moon! However, with the demands of the class and other classes and other assignments, I didn’t really do anything with the story.

But I did get an A in the class!

Rough Draft (2021 Edition)–Rough Drafting By Hand in a Journal

Although this approached worked, I went away from it, moving more and more to writing on the computer. Sometimes I wouldn’t even do a rough draft, but just start on the draft. I was moving away from writing with a journal and rough drafting altogether, but I wasn’t really happy with the quality of my drafts. It wasn’t until I started rough drafting more that I began to see the quality go up and I began to publish more often.

And that brings me to Summer 2021. I’m actually back to writing in journals (I’ve been buying them for a couple of years now, but not really using them for creative writing, more as a more compact to take class notes rather than the unwieldy legal pads which don’t seem to have the same quality and sturdiness of the ones I was able to buy in the mid 90s-mid 2000s). Over this summer, however, I’ve written in them pretty consistently most of the year, even if my creative writing output is less than I’d like.

However, over this summer, I’m actively writing in them creatively by trying to break my stories into 3 discrete parts and then, writing each one of those parts down in the notebook. I’m just handwriting them with any old pen that I have handy (I prefer pencil, but pen shows up better when I photocopy the notes to put in the project’s folder). Then, over the weekend, I’m transferring the handwritten drafts to the computer (much like I did in the summer of 93). Like my first story, I have permission to lightly edit, add in material, and shape it, but I can’t go crazy, more like an “adjustment” than straight on “revising.” I’m allowing myself two (2) notebook pages of handwritten material (front and back of the page for around 250 or so handwritten words). When typing, I’m allowing myself even more room, but I’d like a rough draft of anywhere between 750-1000 words. Nothing major, just enough to flesh out plot and dialogue with a hint of characterization.

So far, I’ve completed 2 rough drafts of stories this way (well, 3 if you count To Sail the Sea of Storms which wasn’t written in exactly this fashion, but was close enough that it could count), so far. I hope to write many more before the Labor Day holiday.

It’s 8pm. Do You Know Where Your Stories Are?

My preferred writing time in the summers (especially this summer) is 8pm. In the winter, I’m usually playing video games at this time as it is already dark, and usually has been for at least an hour or so. However, in the summer it is still light as the sun’s light is visible until around 9pm until summer solstice and then it is still light up until 8pm where I live well past the Labor Day holiday.

While it’s a bummer to stop playing early, I generally feel the most productive creatively in that general time frame of right after dinner, but sometime before bedtime (when tiredness and general fatigue from the day set in). For the past two weeks, I’ve been fairly consistent about the 8pm time slot and making sure to grab my notebook and put down 1-2 handwritten pages from a story that I want to do at random.

I would love to sit outside and draft as I would often sit out on the porch at that time period during my childhood, but the mosquitos are ferocious at that time of day and I’d spend more time dodging them than actually getting any writing done (they were pretty bad when I was a kid, but as a kid, you just shrug that off put up with the mosquito bites and the “itchies” they’d bring in order to play and have fun 🤩).

I’d love to get to a place where I could have a gazebo or screened patio/deck area to write in the fading summer light, but I guess that’s a dream for when I can support myself as a writer/when writing actually pays the bills. For this summer, sitting inside and actually writing is a blissful experience unto itself.

It’s 8pm. Do I know where my stories are? Yes, I do. They’re getting transferred out of my head and on to the paper, and I’m back to having fun in the summer sun!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (June 2021):

  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
    2021 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story)
    2021 Revision: Completed.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story)
    2021 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • To Dance the Sea of Storms (Fantasy Story)
    Prewrite: Completed, Plan & Outline: Completed, Write a first draft: Completed, Revision: In Progress.

Weekend Creative “Growth” Spurt

Images of two heads: 1) Green "head": Growth Mindset. I can try a different strategy. Is this really my best work? This may take some time and effort. 2) Red "head": Fixed Mindset. I can't do this. This work is good enough. This is too hard.
Image Source: https://www.literacyideas.com/latest/2020/12/9/growth-mindset-writing-activities

Much like growth spurts that we all have during childhood, over the weekend, I had a creative “growth” spurt where I was able to work on several projects AND formulate a couple of (personal) creative goals that I hope will help me as I continue to grow as a writer and author. Unfortunately, there was a cost involved with that, in that I didn’t get a chance to grade student papers over the weekend. While I’m not massively behind on grading, I had intended to “catch-up” over the weekend, but this didn’t happen. It seems that when school is in session, I need to go back to what worked before the pandemic: the week is for making sure school-related things get done, but the weekend needs to be for things that I need to do for myself. This might even be another creative goal that I might want to lock into my personal routine.

Starlight, Starbright

So, I’m not sure that I’ve talked about this story on the blog in the past–I think I have, but to sum up, it is a simple sci-fi story that I’ve worked on throughout the years and has gone through a couple of name changes. What I did over the weekend was finish the revision of the story. I’ve been working on the revision on and off though the semester, but I finally finished the revision. Using some of Scrivener’s new and advanced tools, I saw that about 95% of the story’s focus was description and about 5% was dialogue. Now, if you think about Marvel’s films (currently, the most successful storytelling out there), there ratio is closer to 30% description (in my opinion–and I define it as all the cool visuals in which characters aren’t actually talking) and about 70% dialogue. In other words, I’m asking readers (editors/readers) to interact with a story format that isn’t very reader friendly and focuses more on plot than characters. So, I’m lowering my sights for this story and looking for places to publish it even if they aren’t paying markets–something that I did when I was just starting out as I now look for paying markets almost exclusively.

Revision Plan

Which leads me into my first personal creative goal: Revision Plans. Now, there are some things that I know that might be able to do increase my chances of selling Starlight (shortening the title, for instance, like I just did here). Or maybe punching up the dialogue that I do have in the story until it shines. I don’t think I can add much dialogue–in an older version of the story I had a direct conflict with quite a bit of dialogue, but when I revised the story so that it made more sense and had a character that was less of a cipher, I didn’t need nearly as much banter between the protagonist and antagonist, and so I stripped it out. However, I can put these ideas down in a file and work on them during Christmas Break at the beginning of the year. I feel like what I have currently is a strong revision (story makes sense, there is some characterization, edits are done and there are no misspellings, grammar issues, or dropped words). So, for 2021, this is the revision that I’m submitting, but as I see possible improvements that I can make, I’ll drop them in a file and revisit the story every year, revising it to make it better and better, until hopefully, it sells. So, I’m resolved not to touch Starlight again until 2022 in terms of revising–just submit it for the rest of the year and see what happens. I intend to do that with all the stories that I write using the Writing Process model (see below).

Unhallowed

When I wrote Unhallowed, I included the main plot of the story, and a “sub-plot” that showed the main character’s (Arizona’s) backstory. On the feedback of one editor, I stripped it out for later submissions as the editor felt that the backstory slowed the pacing of the story down. However, even though I didn’t have time to work on it this week, for my 2021 revision, I plan on putting the backstory back in. The way that I wrote the ending obliquely references how the world came into being and not having it there, I think, handicaps the story and doesn’t give it the gravity it needs to really land that impact. Now, I’ll probably have to do some serious pruning (of both the backstory and main plot). I think it is about 6,500 words with the backstory and the market that I want to send it to next has a maximum of 5,000 words, so I’m going to need to lose approximately 1,500 words. I also need to do a better job of establishing the “space” of the story as a different editor liked the story, but felt that he got “lost” in the story and couldn’t quite tell where the main character was in relation to the world in the beginning of the story.

Project Wall

On this one, I did some prewriting. As usual, I already have the “plot” or events of the story mapped out as this is what usually comes to me first. However, the character (outside of the name) wasn’t really a character still, but rather a cipher (placeholder). Over the weekend, the main character and protagonist, Jharra, came together for me and I found a “handle” on her character and wrote a character sketch for her. Jharra’s external problem is that she must save her brother in a futuristic world. Jharra’s internal problem is two-fold: 1) she doesn’t want to be alone (from her backstory) and 2) she has anger issues. Those two internal problems will make it hard for her to resolve her external problem. I’m cautiously optimistic for this particular story.

Project Children

I think I’ve mentioned this project before–I may have even mentioned the title or called it something else entirely, but I can’t remember and I don’t have the time to go searching through past blogs to see if this is the case. I’ve written a 1st draft, but wasn’t happy with it at all. I’ve gone through “prewriting” again to try to come up with a strong revision and I think I have after last weekend. I planned and outlined it last weekend and need to just draft it. I also need to do a character sketch for the “new” main character that I’ve developed.

To Dance the Sea of Storms

Like Project Children above, I’ve finished the first draft of the story, but felt that it was missing something. I went back and wrote out a new outline that added new material while incorporating the old draft (with planned changes). So, I feel confident that I’ll be able to write a strong revision for this story (by focusing more on establishing the world more in the first part of the story).

Writing Process

Which brings me to my final point for the post and my last creative goal that I discovered. Visualization of the Writing Process.

Image Source: https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/writing-process/

By using this image to visual the steps of the writing process and marking off the items of where I am in the process for a given project, I’ve really inspired myself to keep going. For most of the semester, I’ve been mired in the belief that I wasn’t making any real headway on my various projects and that I was just “spinning” my wheels on multiple projects. However, by taking the time to note where I’ve outlined, where I’ve done prewriting in the form of character sketches, notes, or brainstorming, by taking the time to highlight that I’ve worked on (and finished) a draft (good or bad), I see that most of my projects are either in the revision or first draft stage. I’m doing the work–now, I just need to take the time to see the work through to completion.

This was strangely cathartic to me! It isn’t that I’m starting and stopping projects–it is just that I’m not getting the revisions done, so that I can move on to the editing stage (or the first drafts done to move on to the revision stage). In other words, visualization of the writing process is allowing me to see where I am in terms of the projects and why my plans aren’t working–and why it always seems like I’m abandoning one project for another. Like Starlight, I need to do a revision, make it as best as I can, and then edit and submit it, and then if I think of better ideas and plans later on, create a file and move to yearly revisions (instead of the nearly continuous revisions that are currently happening).

This was VERY MUCH of a revelation to me and one that (while I knew it intuitively), really helped when I printed out the “chart” and started mapping my own stages on top of it. Now, to be clear, I knew about the “writing process” already (since high school as a matter of fact), but what really makes this useful is to note on the chart itself what I’ve completed and where I am in the process. It really is a GREAT help (to me) to see where I am on this chart for any given project. I think this will make it more likely that I’ll complete more projects as I can now see that I’m much further along on many of them than I actually thought I was. I highly recommend this strategy to other writers out there!

Well, that’s all I have time for today! Have a great week!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (April 2021):

  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
    2021 Revision: In Progress
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story)
    2021 Revision: Completed; Waiting to Send to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story)
    Out to Market
  • To Dance the Sea of Storms (Fantasy Story)
    Prewrite: Completed, Plan & Outline: Completed, Write a first draft: Completed, Revision: In Progress

Project Seas = To Dance the Sea of Storms (Short-Story)

Sailing ship on an ocean with a golden sun and sky and light gray clouds in the sky.
Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/548454060847640099/

I apologize for last week. I keep telling myself that I’ll work on 2-3 blog posts over the weekend, but it just never seems to work out. Last Saturday, I went have my taxes done, and I wasn’t able to get the blog posts again for a second week, so I decided to just do shorter blog posts so that even if I can’t do it the blog daily, I can at least get 2-3 blog posts per week. Today I’m going to start that with a shorter post on managing to finish a new short story.

2 Few Days

So, after finding out that I’ve only had two (2) writing this year, I was very disappointed in myself as a writer. I’ve had many other things to do, but only working on a project for 2 days was something that I have to better with. I’m slowly working my way toward a possible schedule for my class in terms of grading, but I think I over-extended myself on the amount of school projects that I’ve taken on this semester. However, there’s no use complaining–I just need to try to balance my writing, school, and life as best I can in order to accomplish what I can.

So, long story short, I set up a 250 word session goal for Scrivener and worked toward the ending of the first draft of the project. I wrote 272 words in 2 days, but because I was already close to the end of the story, I managed to finish the draft in those two days.

It took me a total of 9 Writing Days to finish the story: 5 days in December, 2 in January, and 2 in February. It is approximately 2,300 words. I feel that it needs a little more, though.

To Dance the Sea of Storms

I’ve had a version of this title for most of the time that I’ve been working on it. I think I’ve said before, but in case I haven’t, most of my stories are generated from ideas that come to me first from titles. I generally think of the title first and then the plot, characters, and setting all come from the title. Rarely, it doesn’t work this way, but for this story, it did.

I will save a “deep-dive” on the plot and story and initial idea for the “Author’s Note” when I send the story off for the first time, but I’ll give a little information about it here. It is a fantasy story inspired by a line of dialogue in a fairly well known story by Stephen Crane called, “The Open Boat.” My story involves sailing and high seas adventure in fantasy world. Think of it as Master and Commander: Far Side of the World in a fantasy world.

So What’s Next?

I’m going to work on another project (planning it out and writing an outline). When I finish that one (hopefully, in a reasonable amount of time), I will come back to To Dance the Sea of Storms and work on the 2nd draft. In the interim, I’ll do a character sketch of the main character, Brynn and jot down notes for how the larger world works. I already have an idea for a new “beginning” scene that should show Brynn’s character to the reader without doing as much telling as I am in this first draft. Considering that this is the middle of February, I don’t think I’ll get back to working on the revision to this story for at least a month. However, as I’m comfortable with doing one new short story per semester, I think I’m still on pace to have the story ready for submission by late April/early May.

I enjoyed writing the story, but I just wish that I could have finished it in December or early January (by spending more time on it more consistently). I most definitely plan to do that during the revision phase.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (February 2021):

  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
    Out to Market
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story)
    In for Revision & Editing
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story)
    Out to Market
  • To Dance the Sea of Storms (Fantasy Story)
    Prewrite: Completed, Plan & Outline: Completed, Write a first draft: Completed, Revision: Not Yet Started

January 2021 Writing Log (2 Writing Days)

Image of a stick figure man staring pensively at a computer screen with his hands folded above his mouth with the following words in yellow highlighter color underneath: Start your draft by writing your ideas and anything that comes to your mind about your topic. At the top of the image are words in red that read: Tip #1: Start writing your draft; Nothing will be written by itself if you just sit and wait.
Image Source: https://researchleap.com/useful-academic-writing-tips/

I’m re-purposing this blog post. This was in my “Drafts” folder here on WordPress and was an entry that was supposed to go up way back in . . . (I’m ashamed to admit this) . . . September 2020. Yep, that’s right, I started this draft to talk about some of my writing projects way back in September of last year, and well, school happened and I never got back to it. So, I’m scrapping the introduction that’s here and replacing it with the one you’re reading (don’t worry, you aren’t missing much)–just some generic garbage about how I’m going to do better and be a better writer in the coming semester (yeah, because that aged SO well). Anyway, I thought, rather than talk about what I want to accomplish, let’s actually talk about what I did accomplish. Let’s hold myself accountable, with the good, the bad, and yes, the ugly. And speaking of ugly, have a gander at the next section.

2 Writing Days in January

Yeah, I’m not proud of this one myself. I only managed two, yes count ’em, two writing days in January. Obviously, that’s not really true as I put together a syllabus for the course I’m teaching as well as the various assignments, I uploaded a ton of materials to D2L, the online learning platform for MTSU, I wrote a letter of recommendation for one of my students, and way too many emails to even count, many three solid paragraphs and more. I also need to update a couple of more documents in the near future as well as draft my conference paper for TPA (TN Philological Association) for an upcoming conference.

So, when I say only 2 writing days and I’m down on myself, it refers to creative writing (and it doesn’t even include the blog, although the entries haven’t been as plentiful as I would have liked). According to Scrivener, I wrote on Jan. 11 (134 words) and Jan. 30 (350 words) for a January 2021 total of approximately 500 words (484 words) for the month. I guess that it is good that it wasn’t 0 words, but I really feel like I can do better (one of the reasons to do this blog–both this post and the blog overall–is to do just that: do better).

Project Sea Stats

The project that I’m currently working is called Project Sea. I do an Author’s Note (my version of a “deep dive”) on it when I finished it and have sent it off to its first market. However, I can give some basic stats: in December 2020, I managed 5 writing days with a total of 1,243 words. When you add in the 484 words from January 2021, that means I’m currently up to approximately 1,700 words into the story. It feels like I’m wrapping the story up, and if I’d would have had more than 2 writing days in January, I probably would have finished the first draft already.

Why does this matter? My subconscious mind has already begun working on revisions for the story. I now have a new introductory scene that I would like to write to add in a stronger focus on characterization than what I have currently written. By not writing and finishing the first draft, I’m sabotaging my writing process. If I stop working on the ending, then when I get to the revision, I won’t know the specifics of what I need to describe. This happens quite often in my projects as I feel the revised scene is much stronger than what I have, but I’m making myself finish the first draft this time around so that hopefully, my subconscious will work its way through the rest of the story.

Semester by Semester, 250 words by 250 words

So, even though this is January, I’m also working from semester to semester. By the end of the semester, I want to have Project Seas finished and ready to start submitting. I want to start a new project (short story) for Summer 2021. Three (3) new short projects per year (1 a semester) seems like a workable goal, especially in addition to writing longer projects that can span more than 1 semester (and working on a dissertation as well).

All this to say, that I haven’t done myself any favors by only writing 2 days in January. I averaged 242 words for the month, which is the same 250 words per bulletin board post that I ask my students to do all of last semester and this semester as well. In single space, digital form, 250 words only equals about two paragraphs (full paragraphs, mind you) of screen real estate, so I feel like it is something that is both substantial, yet achievable. That’s what I’m working towards myself this month. Hitting as many 250 word writing days as possible. As I finish this post, it is Feb. 3rd, 2021 and I’ve not yet written anything for the month of February (creatively–I’ve actually finished two blog posts this month–maybe I should put these into Scrivener just to keep a running total of when I work on these things as well; something to consider).

Well, this blog post is beginning to run long–there’s not a word counter on the post editor itself, but once I post it, I can see how long this is, but I’m guessing it is at least 500 words and probably closer to 750-800, so I will wrap it up here. My takeaway: 250 words is ridiculously doable and I need to maximize the number of days that I hit the 250 word target. As February is the shortest month, you (and I) should know shortly if I can take advantage of the new knowledge that I’ve gained about my writing process.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (February 2021):

  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
    Out to Market
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story)
    In for Revision & Editing
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story)
    In for Revision & Editing
  • Project Seas (Fantasy Story)
    Prewrite: Completed, Plan & Outline: Completed, Write a first draft: In Progress

On the (Writing) Road Again

A straight road with a white striped line down the center disappearing into the horizon. There are brown fields of grass on either side with an azure blue sky above.

Sorry for stepping away from the blog, but college classes, under Covid, are something else entirely from what I’m used to as an instructor. I’ll save this rumination for another post, but basically, everything takes 5 to 6 times longer because everything has to be explained (in detail) in this environment and often, multiple times. A simple explanation at the end of class to clear up a misunderstanding often takes at least 1 email, sometimes 2 or 3. So, all that to say, I’m struggling to keep up with it all.

However, what I can say is that, after a two month unintentional hiatus, I am back on the writing path. Oh, I’ve been writing over these two months and while it hasn’t all been for school, most of it has. I even tried to work on other projects, but they’ve all fallen by the wayside until last weekend.

Project Wall

So, the obvious joke would be that I “hit the wall” with this project. That’s not true, however. The fact is, I still believe in this project and I still want to do it, but I don’t really have a strong character to help guide me through. I have a brother and sister duo here, and I’m an only child. I set it up so that the younger brother would try to save the older sister that he idolizes, but even in the very first scenes/paragraphs, I could muster much urgency for the character and his dilemma, even with a literal “clock” ticking in the background to increase the sense of tension with the story. And this isn’t some random bomb explosion, but a time-based story point actually woven into the story’s setting–and yet, I felt nothing as I was writing it. I may have to just make it the main character’s story instead of trying make it about saving his sister. Maybe the solution is to have him out and he has to struggle back before the time runs out. I’m not sure, but just writing those couple of sentences seems more tense than the draft I had been working on.

Project Ranger

The next project I’d been working on was one in which I can see the first scene and the last scene in my mind’s eye. I was able to get the entire first scene down, but without a middle, I don’t really have a narrative going. I have a thing that they are working towards, but it is a longer narrative that can’t easily be told as a short-story because of the number of characters involved and the way in which I want to tell the story.

Also, while I have a fairly distinctive character this time in terms of conflict, I don’t have a good sense of who that character is outside of his one defining trait: anger. Not only that, but I can’t “see” the character. I know he’s African American, but is he short or tall, bearded or clean shaven, bald or dreads down to he shoulder blades? I don’t know, I can’t tell you and it makes it hard when your protagonist is just one emotion: barely contained rage, and nothing else.

KnightWatch (Graphic Novel)

Which leads me to my final project, KnightWatch, and the one that I actually have worked on for the past two weeks in a row and the one that seems to be “the one.” It is a sequel to my long ago published story “Sister Knight.” This one is also going to take a while (probably all the way through Christmas) as it is a graphic novel. While not my first attempt at a graphic novel, it seems like it could be the first one I actually finish *fingers crossed* as it seems (right now) to be “flowing” where the other two projects did not.

This time, unlike my previous project (which I do hope to go back to at some point), I delved directly into the sequel. I think my beginning point is strong enough and evocative enough to capture the audience’s attention, but if I need to recap my short story as a “first” issue, my rationale is that I know how to do that well now from the previous project and right now, the story I want to tell is the one that I’m telling–a new story, with old characters in an “advisory”/”adjacent” position and new characters taking up the story. I can see the main protagonist of the story with my mind’s eye and the secondary characters are beginning to come into “focus.” I’m going to change my Signature file to reflect this new story. I’m giving myself a while (3 months) to get it done.

Well, that’s all that I have for now. Hopefully, more shortly!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (10/2020):

  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
    Out to Market
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story)
    Out to Market
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story)
    Out to Market
  • KnightWatch Graphic Novel (Fantasy Graphic Novel)
    Drafting: 1st Draft (Issue 1)

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