I’ve completed a handful of stories, mostly quite short.
The first completed was “An Ancient Bridge”, a heroic fantasy story that led to my RPG campaign based on its world, is about 6000 words.
The recent ones:
“Detention” – magical realism for a school teacher (1500 words)
“Service” – satellite in a cotton field (1000 words)
“D.I.Y.” – the horror of home repair (1000 words)
“An Advance on Junior” – southern detective/scifi (2100 words)
Time
I switched it to first person, and wrote another 1000 words to finish “An Advance on Junior”. I submitted it to my group for a look. I’m going to gather all my stories and decide on a more serious forum to join. I’ll also summarize my output so far. Now, sleep.
I wrote 1000 words last night of a projected 2000-word story based on a prompt from my ‘Impromptu’ group. During the day I had an hour drive and planned out the rest of the plot. The story is supposed to be a detective story. I’ve taken the classic private eye story and moved it into the rural south and am now slipping in the sci-fi. I started with a third-person narration, but I’m going to go back through it and will probably change it to first person for the private eye. More when I finish.
A few years ago, when I thought I would soon start writing, it made sense to read a few books about writing speculative fiction. I picked up How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction by Cory Doctorow and Karl Schroeder. These were excellent books, but instead of inspiring me to write, the books fell into my information collection obsession. So now I have an embarrassingly extensive collection. In fact I may have more books on writing than anyone who hasn’t actually published anything or taught a class on the subject.
My Library
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction by Doctorow & Schroeder
The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
The Writer’s Guide to Fantasy Literature by Philip Martin
Worlds of Wonder by David Gerrold
The Writer’s Complete Fantasy Reference by Writer’s Digest
Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy by Crawford Killian
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
Age of Wonders by David Hartwell
The Road to Science Fiction, edited by James Gunn, Volume 1 & Volume 4
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White
The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman
The Weekend Novelist by Robert J. Ray
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldman
Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
On Writing by Stephen King
Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress
Naming the World by Bret Anthony Johnston
The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes by Jack Bickham
No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
The Writers Book of Wisdom by Steven Goldsbury
20 Master Plots by Ronald Tobias
10 Rules of Writing by Elmore Leonard (from an essay)
This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley
I have read most of most of these and taken notes on several. I’ll try to
post what I’ve learned as I go. Collecting and admiring these books have been
additional ways to distract myself from writing. “Reading about doing
something, instead of doing it,” a good friend calls it. And he’s right. I may
read them, but I won’t let it substitute for writing. Damn it.