Stephen L. Thompson's Blog, page 60

I've done better than last year!

If you follow this blog, you'll know that I keep track of how many words I write. My goal for this year is to write 50,000. Well, over the weekend – without me noticing for a couple of days – I passed a milestone. Last year I wrote a total of 43,991 words. As of this morning, I've written 44,816 words! I still have a ways to go to meet my goal, but at least I'm improving.

Failure of the Memory Sock

Like most writers, I often have ideas as I'm failing asleep. When that happens, we have a choice of either getting up, turning on a light, and writing it down, or hope we remember it in the morning. For a while I kept a notebook and pen by my bed to jot ideas down in the dark, but unfortunately, my handwriting is barely legible when I'm awake, wearing my glasses, and in a lighted room. The next morning I'd often look at the ink scrawled across the page and have no clue what was written....

Writing Group Prompt for November

Each month, the writing group I belong to sets out a prompt for the next meeting. We then have a month to write a poem or something from that prompt that we read at the next meeting. I also figured these would work nicely as blog posts. The prompt for our November meeting was "If life were like …." This is what I wrote.

What if life were like writing? We'd never have to settle for the first draft. If you – the main character – said something stupid when talking to the person you had a...

Arghhh!

I'm working on a new collection of stories. I'm planning on including six, six word stories. Of those six I had one good story and a bunch of not-so good stories. On a couple of occasions, I've sat down to write more good ones, only to draw blanks or more not-so good ones. Today I spent a good half-an-hour coming up with nothing. Then I wrote a good six word story in about five seconds.

And people wonder why writers go mad.

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Stephen L. Thompson's October 2011 Newsletter

Howdy,

Welcome to my electronic newsletter, covering October 2011.

My publication news for the past month:

Publication of my stories "Failure to Communicate," "Planning Ahead," and "The Horror" on my Ficly account.

Acceptance of my story "Enigma" by Books To Go Now.  I'll let you know when it will be available.

* * *

This month I wrote 5,904 words, giving me a total this year of 41,595.  I hope I can make it to 50,000 by December 1st.

* * *

Here is my story board at the end of October:

One change is t...

40,000 Words!

As of this morning, I've written 40,089 words so far this year!  Back when I hit 30,000 words on August 18th, I figured that at the rate I was going I'd hit 40,000 words on October 13th.  Hopefully, now that things are starting to settle down, I will be able to spend even more time writing.  So I shouldn't have a problem hitting my goal of 50,000 words by the end of the year.  In fact, I will challenge myself to hit that mark on December 1st.  If I can keep up my latest rate of writing, that ...

Stephen L. Thompson's September 2011 Newsletter

Howdy,

Welcome to my electronic newsletter, covering September 2011. 

My publication news for the past month:

Publication of my story "Housebreaking" by AntipodeanSF.

You can also listen to "Housebreaking" here.

Publication of my story "Never Done" on my Ficly account.

* * *

I don't want to make this a monthly thing, but I just want to remind you that I also have several blogs you can check out.  There's The King of Prussia Writing Examiner, the Prince of Pithy Blog, the Oneoveralpha's Writing Blog ...

Listen to my story "Housebreaking"

My flash fiction story "Housebreaking" was published in issue 159 of AntipodeanSF.  They also have a podcast where the author can read their story.  But since I'm a better writer than a reader, someone else read my story.  You can hear it on AntiSF Radio Show 159 Gamma.  It begins just after the 29 minute mark.  Enjoy.

Stephen L. Thompson's August 2011 Newsletter

Howdy,

Welcome to my electronic newsletter, covering August 2011.

My publication news for the past month:

None.

* * *

This month I wrote 5,242 words, giving me a total this year of 31,987. Again my goal is to write a total of 50,000 words this year, and it's starting to look like I'll make it.

* * *

Here is my story board at the end of August:

The purpose of my story board was to keep track of my stories that I'm not self-publishing.  I have started another list (just on a sheet of paper) for the...

30 Stories in 30 Days Update

I mentioned in a previous post having had some thoughts about my 30 Stories in 30 Days Challenge.  But first, I know it's a few months late, but I did enjoy the change I made this year of posting my stories to my blog instead of my website.  It was easier for me and I'm going to continue doing that.  Now the change I'll make starting next year is the time of the challenge.  Back in 2008 I came up with the idea of writing thirty stories in as many days sometime in late June or July.  So the...