For those one or two of you that may or may not have checked in on my home page throughout the month of October, you may have noticed a little progress update on a new mystery project. As of now, the first draft is complete! I’m going to give a small update on what it is below, but I’m excited to say that it boosted my October writing productivity.
This new project is very different from the Soulformer books (which is why I wanted to write it in the first place, to get the creativity juices flowing). It’s a sci-fi short story about a man who accidentally commits murder and tries to run away, or can he fix it…? The vagueness is on purpose, obviously. The way I would describe it is an episode of Twilight Zone or Black Mirror set in a Bladerunner-esque time period and setting (but without the androids). The first draft comes in just shy of 11,500 words, 7 “chapters”, and 44 pages long.
I loved writing it, as you can probably tell seeing as I wrote the whole thing in one month. It was nice to finish something that encouraged new growth in my writing skills, but didn’t require another six months of writing like a full novel would have. I was able to brainstorm the ideas I wanted, prepare a chapter outline, and then write it in less than a month (interspersed with some other major life events that took a lot of time away from doing anything else).
The reason I wanted to branch out and do something different is two-fold; 1) I was feeling a bit stagnant in writing Soulformer book 2 and not very motivated to keep going; and 2) I wanted to try something new that wouldn’t pull all of my attention away from finishing the Soulformer story for too long. I think this short story has done just that, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
So, what are the plans for this month? Well, I don’t want to just drop this short story as a first draft and move on. That’s no fun. I plan on letting a couple people read it and give some alpha-level feedback, and then I will revise it and polish it up to a point where I feel comfortable submitting it for publication (like in a sci-fi/fantasy magazine or something, nothing too huge).
Those of you still with me may be wondering, what is this story called? When can I read it? What does this mean for Soulformer?
First of all, thank you for continuing to read these updates. It means a lot to know there are at least a couple people out there wanting to see more.
As for the title… I have no idea. I am honestly terrible with naming my stories. I have a OneNote notebook full of writing ideas with titles like “Controlling People Power” and “Sun Syphon Magic”. Some ideas don’t even have a title at all. My plan is to have a few close friends and family read the story and make some suggestions. I will hopefully have an update on that title sometime this month (here’s hoping). If not, maybe I’ll open it up to a few other lucky readers to get an early sample of the story and to help me figure out the perfect title.
Next, when can you read it? Another great question, thank you for your participation in today’s lecture. As I mentioned above, I plan on polishing this up and submitting it for publication. Before that time, a few people will be helping me iron out the wrinkles and getting the story as tight and shiny as possible. Once I submit it to various publications and it’s in a state I’m mostly comfortable with, I’ve decided to do something special. I want to send a copy to those who have signed up for email updates as a reward for their willingness to subscribe and as a sample of my writing style, storytelling, etc. I will say, there are a couple of you that have subscribed using a wordpress account instead of signing up for the email updates. I’ve tried to figure out a way to send it to you, but for some reason wordpress does not allow messaging followers. When the time comes (and I’ll give another reminder in a future update when the story is ready to be sent), whoever is following the blog rather than providing their email, feel free to message me using the Contact page to provide your preferred email and I will send you a copy.
Finally, what does this mean for Soulformer? It means GREAT things for Soulformer. By writing this short story, I was able to continue practicing my writing without feeling burnt out or overwhelmed by the sheer amount of writing still ahead of me. It somewhat kickstarted my joy in writing again and as soon as I’m done polishing this new one, I’m going straight back to writing book 2.
This here has been the somewhat substantial update for the month of October. I’m excited and I hope you are, too. Hopefully I will be able to get this draft done and submitted to a magazine or two this month. That’s the goal! Until then, keep on keeping on.