My mid-week report to you that covers the three major commitments I’ve made: to write, to edit, and to read.
I was listening to this in the car tonight, and man, it is an excellent “windows down for a late evening drive” song!
Writing
I put down a beginning and and end for “Walk Into Light”, a short story about a mother’s love for Or All Will Burn… and yes, that’s the name of one of Ian Anderson’s solo albums, thank you for noticing!
Something that I noticed while doing that: it is really easy to set things up so that you have similar imagery in your opening and ending scenes. I am hoping I can pull this one off. I think that I may need to change my POV character, though. While the story is - on the surface - about what a mother will do for the life she created, I think it will very much focus on the legacy that life includes. Which means a subtle shift in who the main character is. Maybe. I may either have to play with it for a while, or descend into telling a parallel story from two points of view. We’ll see.
I also put down a thousand words or so for a scene in something that might one day end up a long novella, or a short novel. I have a couple of characters from a short story that I keep returning to. Maybe one day I can pull that all together into something that flows and tells a greater story.
Speaking of which… I have a couple of short-ish (partially completed) novels that I want to revisit and re-outline, too. They’re set in the same world, but feature different characters. While I was trying to decide which one I would like to tackle first, I had a glimmer of an idea that ended up tying them both together in a satisfying way. So I want to explore that a bit. Whichever one I choose to tackle first, it will be after I’ve done some outlining and scene lists.
Oh, and I’ve decided to complete this one by the end of the year. Just because that will make two novels finished in one year. Mind you, starting and finishing two novels in the same year would be even cooler, but let’s leave that for a future goal, eh?
Editing
Not much, unfortunately. Travel, jet lag, a bit of bleah and the Day Job have kept me occupied. I do have a couple of critiques I would like to get to this week, though.
Reading
Approaching the end of Les Johnson’s first contact novel, Mission to Methonē. Then I’ll finish up Annoyed with Lloyd by Christopher Woods, just in case, before I swing back to The Cunning Man by D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey.
Other
As mentioned, the Day Job has been taking up some time. It’s all good stuff - I’m helping fix problems - but it’s been rather intense, which can be exhausting. Especially when you’re already dealign with a tiny bit of jet lag and feeling meh.
It’s also been a very Meeting-ful week. I rounded out today going from one board meeting to another, and I’ve got another meeting tomorrow night. Usually these are spread out a bit more, but every few months it seems that Mars is in Jupiter’s Basement or something and all of them hit at once.
So that’s where I’m at. My goals for the next week: work a bit more on “Walk Into Light”, keep on reading, and start working on outlining one or more partially finished novels, all while tackling whatever else the world might throw at me.
Simple, eh? See you next week!