writing
Yesterday I managed 2200 words on the novella-in-progress, thanks largely to doing word-sprint challenges throughout the day with my new online writing group, Words Are In Order. This brings the total word count up to about 20k, and I think it's time to wrap this thing up, connect the two different timeframes (flashbacks into the MC's life and her current dangerous activities) and send the draft off for someone to find all the plot holes.
I'd been writing pretty steadily in September, up until the last week when I wrote but not quite as much. The original deadline for submitting the novella was Sept 30, but then the publisher extended the open call through Oct 31 because they knew I, and several authors, were not quite done with our submissions. This is a great opportunity but also creates a bottleneck. Once I knew I had the extra month, I slowed down considerably. But I still have two other short stories to write by Oct 31 (one in the 2k to 10k range, the other in the 1.5k to 12k range; I suspect both will be on the shorter side, but one never knows). I don't want to miss the open calls for either of those. There's also a third open call with an Oct 31 deadline, for a story in the 1k to 6k range, but that's basically at the bottom of the list right now since the other 2 short stories were actually pitched to the publisher in question, who is expecting to see them.
This novella fills in a chunk of history for the Denthen System, my alien society introduced in "A Battle For Parantwer" in FULL THROTTLE SPACE TALES #6: SPACE BATTLES, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. I've both enjoyed and hated writing this in about equal measure, because at times I've found myself wondering if it's turned into one big info-dump. Then I'll write a scene (like yesterday) that feels like it really clicks and involves history but not as dry narration, and I think "hey, this'll be alright."
There is also a character in this novella called Yja Kael, a tuckerization-of-sorts for someone I respect a lot and who has inspired me. SF/F fans should be able to decipher that pretty quickly. Interestingly, I realize I've got several stories about Yja Kael to tell.
I'd been writing pretty steadily in September, up until the last week when I wrote but not quite as much. The original deadline for submitting the novella was Sept 30, but then the publisher extended the open call through Oct 31 because they knew I, and several authors, were not quite done with our submissions. This is a great opportunity but also creates a bottleneck. Once I knew I had the extra month, I slowed down considerably. But I still have two other short stories to write by Oct 31 (one in the 2k to 10k range, the other in the 1.5k to 12k range; I suspect both will be on the shorter side, but one never knows). I don't want to miss the open calls for either of those. There's also a third open call with an Oct 31 deadline, for a story in the 1k to 6k range, but that's basically at the bottom of the list right now since the other 2 short stories were actually pitched to the publisher in question, who is expecting to see them.
This novella fills in a chunk of history for the Denthen System, my alien society introduced in "A Battle For Parantwer" in FULL THROTTLE SPACE TALES #6: SPACE BATTLES, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. I've both enjoyed and hated writing this in about equal measure, because at times I've found myself wondering if it's turned into one big info-dump. Then I'll write a scene (like yesterday) that feels like it really clicks and involves history but not as dry narration, and I think "hey, this'll be alright."
There is also a character in this novella called Yja Kael, a tuckerization-of-sorts for someone I respect a lot and who has inspired me. SF/F fans should be able to decipher that pretty quickly. Interestingly, I realize I've got several stories about Yja Kael to tell.