Clarion is not running a write-a-thon this year, which made me panic, because I had been for the past two years promising to return to my 50-stories goal and failing to because I had a novel on deadline. (Good problem to have.) My short story stash was running dry! But it turns out that Clarion WEST was doing a write-a-thon, so I jumped on board. Why not? Their set-up is a bit different, but I’m using it to make myself write, what does it matter?
I pledge to write 50 short stories in the next six weeks – defining a story as at least 1000 words and contaniing a beginning, middle and end.
This is the write-a-thon goal that launched my professional career. You can read about that in a previous entry.
If you donate, please feel free to request a character name, plot element, what have you! I will reward you with inclusion in my fiction. After all, I have fifty stories to come up with!
Here is the page you can go to if you want to donate. You can leave a comment there with your desired fiction idea, unlike on this blog, where sadly I had to disable comments because… reasons.
Writing goal progress:
18/50Day one:Two very crappy rough drafts created! One is a locked room mystery in space, the other a story about the swan brothers adjusting to human life.
Day two:Banged out a 2.7k story on an old topic – building a velodrome on Mars. Went easy. Not as serious a story. Also found a half-complete draft of something and completed it. Feels good.
Day three: Finished a story started day one and picked at on day two. Longest so far at 4,700 words. It’s about the idea of the “entitled poor” and water scarcity and I might’ve gotten a bit ranty.
Day four: Finished a story started yesterday, on an old idea. Space food. Not sure I quite hit the point? Starting another story that I hope is more cozy, near-future, personal stakes.
Day five: struggled to finish that story. It’s either heartbreaking or a mess. About domestic violence and robots.
Day six: struggled on three different stories, finished a micro-flash, can’t count it. It’s only 400 words, but doesn’t feel like it can be longer. So a wash.
Day seven: finished one of the stories from yesterday. 3.6k – it kept needing more plot. And a 2k very literary thing. and a flash Three story day! I’m back on track.
Day eight: finished a fantasy piece started, um, two days ago? About stepmothers being nice.
Day nine: four started stories, nothing going over the finish line, then I had an idea while brushing my teeth and finished one. About my childhood and eating paper. Tried to make it pretty?
Day ten: started 6 drafts, failed to hit the finish line on any.
Day eleven: finished one of the drafts from yesterday. A ghost story that needed more theme. Then I wrote a silly piece based on a prompt. “The Penultimate death and final resurrection of Clockwork Joe, with recipes.”
Day twelve: Started a thing… no idea how to finish it.
Day thirteen: Drove to a convention – did not write
Day fourteen: Finished the thing from day twelve! It’s another of those old ideas I’ve wanted to write for a long time: if you could change your personality through medicine, would you?
Day fifteen: Wrote some longhand in a panel, started shaping it into a story. Drove home. Was exhausted.
Day sixteen: Typed in the longhand story and gave it an ending. Also finished off a story I started in my journal at the convention.
Day seventeen-eighteen: ugh dayjob hard. No writing… that went anywhere.
Today is day 19. I have 4-5 half-starts to try to finish, or I could go off in a new direction. I have to try to make at least one today, I’m falling behind … but only just.
I think the types of stories I’m writing this time are more … introspective? More focused on tiny emotional journeys? It’ll be interesting to compare them to that first write-a-thon’s output.
If you’d like to support my Quixotic efforts, please consider donating either to the write-a-thon or to Clarion UCSD – which is hosting an auction instead of a write-a-thon. There are many delightful prizes, including some donated by yours truly!
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