I don’t exactly know why I completely spaced this blog post. It was supposed to go up last Friday, on the 6th, but obviously it didn’t. I even remembered all the way leading up to the day, but on the day itself (and until late last night) it didn’t even occur to me. Whoops.
Anyway, if you happened to miss last month’s post, you may not know that the first draft of the book is done. This month, I dedicated my time to reading through the draft and making some notes on issues that need to be addressed in the next draft. It was actually really fun to read through, and I got good notes on some inconsistencies and plot holes that will need to be patched. Being the nerd I am, I created a spreadsheet for important facts and reminders in each chapter. I also created a spreadsheet for the estimated timeframes between each major/semi-major plot point so I could track how long they had been on Enceladus (and confirm some of the time-centered dialogue to make sure I wasn’t over- or underestimating things). Fun fact, my estimates are that the entire story takes place within about seven hours. Now you know.
I know my goal this past month was to come up with an actual title for the book. I have some potential candidates, but nothing really jumped out and grabbed me. I’m going to have to ask the couple people that have read through it to get their opinions, but I’ve got nothing concrete to report here at this time. Sorry about that!
Now, on to something exciting. The two of you that read my blog posts every month might have noticed a little something something pop up on my home page. A new entry titled “Secret Halloween Project” has a completion percentage. This is actually a new short story I wrote for a friend who’s doing a project for Halloween. My friend loves Halloween and he loves Marvel. This year, he decided to gather his friends who enjoy writing and create a collection of short stories centered around Marvel characters, but mirroring the ideas of classic horror stories. Think Frankenstein, Dracula, etc. I thought this sounded really fun, so I volunteered.
The prompt I chose was a combination of Doctor Strange and Lovecraft, and I immediately had an idea that got me excited. I quickly wrote down the basic plot and started writing, whipping out a first draft in about a week or so. I’ve never really written a short story (I’m talking real short. Like, around 3,000 words short), so it was exciting to try and jam as much detail and information as I could into a tiny format. I don’t think I spaced it quite evenly enough, so the ending felt rushed. However, my friend is reading through the draft to get me some of his notes. Once I’ve got those, I’ll make a second and possibly a third draft to make sure the story is as tight as possible. I’m assuming I’ll have it basically done by my next blog post, so more information to come!
So, what does this mean for this month’s writing? Likely, it means I won’t really start fully into draft 2 of my book until October. Since this new project is a Halloween short story collection, I have a bit of a deadline to make sure my short story is ready in time. However, I think this will be good in the long run. This will give me some time and distance from the book and will, hopefully, give me a bit more of a fresh start on draft 2.
I’m excited to share more about this new secret short story next time! Until then!