June 23, 2017

Day 23: Short Story Marathon

Summary

Up in front of the computer just before 6 a.m. again, no idea what to write.  My brain came up with an interesting sentence written from the perspective of an android that has just been powered up and doesn’t know what happened to the world. It’s one of those “paint yourself in the corner” openings with an unconventional structure. But hey, take a chance, there is still a lot of stories to write here. After an hour of slow going, it felt like I was stuck in that corner and wouldn’t find a way out. But then, a shower, and boom, it came into focus.

Not sure how sellable this one is, but it’s short and interesting. Story  #19, “Is Anyone Receiving This?,” 1,700 words. Read it to Aleia who liked it, and off to Dean tomorrow.

Another pass through #18, “Ela and the Naiad”, and off to Dean. That makes 14 in a row.

Less writing today. Resisted the urge to do more. Needed to slow down a bit. The fatigue had forced me to be more relaxed about it today. Not sure what the weekend will bring, but I plan to be mellower about this than I have, even if that means the end of the streak.

Oh, and I wanted to discuss sending out “The Disappearing Neighborhood” yesterday. There’s some cool facts here:

  1. It was my “write a story start to finish in a day” experiment from day 5.
  2. Dean really liked the story.
  3. My proofreader found very little wrong with it besides a few typos and a bunch of missing commas (typical for me).

This bodes well for writing quickly. We’ll see how the markets like it.

Stats for Today

Strategies Employed:  Shower!

Lessons Learned: Trust the process. Trust the experiences. Relax. Write.

Words Written: 1,900

Hours: 2.25

Stories Sent to Dean: 1

Story Summary

# Story Total Words Done?
1 Woody and June vs. the Fungus-Head Zombies 5101 Yes
2 Daisy’s Heart 5800 Yes
3 The Disappearing Neighborhood 2773 Yes
4 Woody and June vs. the Grand Canyon 6070 Yes
5 Home in Time 4483 Yes
6 Wink, Plum, and the Bones that March 5972 Yes
7 The Stars in Hoshi’s Eyes 2532 Yes
8 Android Eve and Adam 3512 Yes
9 A Long, Hard Fall 8475 Yes
10 Fitz’s Second Chance 2800 Yes
11 Fake Jake 1565 Yes
12 With Light Years Between Us 4670 Yes
13 Life and a Starling 2278 Yes
14 Dancing Kite 1524 Yes
15 Jump in Time 8768 Yes
16 Death by Vodka 2100 Yes
17 Death by Cookie 4094 Yes
18 Ela and the Naiad 3655 Yes
19 Is Anyone Receiving This? 1700 No

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Robert J. McCarter


Robert J. McCarter is the author of more than ten novels and over a hundred short stories...... learn more

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