The editor emerges

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 0 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 8/0.

Today was a busy day. My wife was at work, with me the stay at home dad. I was tired, my wife was tired and the baby was tired, but still eager to climb everything in reach and therefore in need of constant supervision.

I am still in the process of typing in the story. The editor in me is having serious issues with what I am typing in. I probably have to keep him in check until I have heard from some reader. The ending scene is the story. Everything up till that point kind of just feels like filler. Although I have written a couple of good episodes, I think, it just reads as if nothing is happening except a slow build-up to the action.

I might have to cut everything but the ending, but the ending is easily a 1000 or 1500 word story by itself, so that shouldn't be a problem. Plenty of magazines are looking for stories in that range. My plan is to wait and see, however, until I've heard some reader response.

Wife going back to work

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 2-300 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 8/0.

I never managed to post an update yesterday and today I'll have to make a fast update so I can get some sleep. I have had two stabs at an ending for the story. I have also started to type it in. The process I hope to get done tomorrow is to type it in and then do a quick edit before I get someone else to take a look at it.

My wife is starting work again tomorrow. Me and the baby will have 8 or 9 hours or fun together. I am sure I will be full of energy to write after that ordeal. It will be hard, but I think I'll manage. How I'll fit in writing with the wife working again I don't know.

I've written a little short flash fiction thing yesterday. I didn't have any good ideas on how to end the story, so I just ended up writing something else. It was just a short little funny scene.

Ending is hard

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 50 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 7/0.

I didn't post an update here yesterday. The 50 words mentioned above I wrote yesterday and should have been part of that tally.

The 50 words were an attempt at the ending of the short story. I don't think it worked. I want to write a beautiful ending where I somehow comunicate the protagonist's epiphany to the reader. I want a ending like Joyce's "The Dead" or Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. What I got is an ending that sounds like someone trying to write like Joyce or Fitzgerald.

I went to bed sleeping on it yesterday. I think I had some ideas in the morning, but I didn't write them down. Now they are gone. I will sleep on it again tonight. In 8 hours or so my daughter will wake up and whatever I have thought up during the night will have to contend with her for my attention. Needless to say, if I don't jot it down during the night it will never find its way onto paper.

The ending doesn't have to be that stellar. I just want something original. There are a few moments in the story where I think I write something worthwhile. I figure it needs a worthwhile ending as well, not just a failed attempt at fancy prose filled with cliches.

Writing on the bus

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 320 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 7/0.

My plans for writing today went bust when I got a phonecall from a friend, with plans for card playing followed by a movie. I arived very late for the card game, the baby was determined to stay up late, but I got there and we went to see Taken 2 afterwards.

I thought, however, after I looked at my route online and found it included a 25 minute bus ride, that I would bring my legal pad, just in case. The result was the 320 words mentioned above.

The story is not quite finished, but almost. I cracked open the final, dreaded scene. Although I haven't read it through yet, I think I got it to work. Now I just need a paragraph or two to end the story. I think I want the protagonist to have a realisation, a true Joycean epiphany.

I'll sleep on it tonight and I hope to complete the draft tomorrow.

Goal met, I think

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 500 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 7/0.

I think I wrote about 500 words today. I did a rough estimate (about eight words per line, 69 lines, five striked out) and although I might have written more than 500, I'll round down in case I overestimate my productivity again.

It is the last scene of the story. I am almost finished with it. A few more paragraphs and I will be ready to start the next part of the process of writing a short story. Now I hope and expect that I can have a finished product by next Sunday. Sometimes, however, editing can drag out. Sometimes stories can even die during the revision process.

I have created a character for the roleplaying game that a few friends and I are planning to start. There might be a meet tomorrow and I hope to get one more idea for a character, so I will have some choice to think about.