The Story a Week Challenge
2019 was a year of many challenges
and many accomplishments. Fog Season
came out — yay! The Gordath Wood series was reissued by sfgateway!! Woo-hoo! I managed
programming for ArmadilloCon,
and boy howdy was that a challenge but also a huge accomplishment.
The other big challenge started in
January and was one that I gave myself in the interests of becoming a better
writer. Starting the first week in January, I strove to write a story a week.
It was an interesting experiment.
Some stories flowed from my fingertips. Others were like chipping granite. I
had to turn off the internal editor and let the magic happen, and well,
sometimes the magic didn’t happen. I kept myself from going back to reread,
because I wanted to let the stories gel. I’ve only now, in November, gone back
to review my output. And, well…
In some ways, this was a failed
experiment. I wrote fewer than twenty stories (correction: I just found a
couple that I had written and forgotten about, so there are actually twenty
stories! Woo-hoo!). I was derailed in the summer when the convention took all
of my free time. Some of the stories were pretty…not good. (Interestingly, my
opinion of which ones those were has changed since I’ve gone back to reread.)
In more important ways, I succeeded
beyond my wildest dreams. Some of these stories worked in exciting ways. One
has become a new novel project, and it’s hard, and kicking my butt, and
stretching me in ways I never thought I would grow, and I would never have
discovered this story without this project. I’m excited by what I’ve produced.
There’s a dopamine hit for every The End I’ve written, something that takes
longer when writing a novel. So basically this project was me like a rat
hitting the crack button, but anyway…
Two stories have already started the
submission process, and another two have gone out to my small cadre of
newsletter subscribers. I’m editing them one at a time, while also working on
new projects. They are a deep well of work that I intend to draw on.
Will I do this again in 2020? I
don’t know yet. Maybe it’s an every other year thing, since 2020 will be filled
with editing. And the year isn’t over. I’ve got a few more weeks left. Maybe
it’s time to see if I can get at least a handful of stories out before December
31.
The
CampaignThe
Star Seeds Witches Meet at Midnight (on submission)The
Westering Woman (novella)Dirt
Track Rodeo GirlArchaea
(unfinished)Dog
GirlRed
Ned Mederos and the Sea Girl of Port St. Frey (newsletter)Tru
BlueFollowing
the SunG
on a Shopping SpreeLast
Train to Hab OneFrancine
Goes WestFive
Sons for Fala (novella)Caro
Comes HomeSepiaThe
Long Walk (unfinished)The
Cutting Table (newsletter)PonyLucy
Grey The
Scent of Horses (on submission)
