What’s your week been like?
I’d set up a goal for myself to write a new short story per week. How did I do? Not bad! Although, to be fair, the goal should have been expressed as “finish one short story per week” as I went back to some half-finished and abandoned stories to get them into shape. As of this morning I have four stories out on submission! Hooray!
I fret often about how “I don’t have good ideas.” I think the bigger problem is, I have ideas but I don’t capture them effectively, nor develop them. Ideas, for me, need time and space to grow. They rarely come to be fully formed. One of the BEST pieces of writing advice I’ve put into practice has been Alexandra Sokoloff‘s advice to keep a dream journal. Let your subconscious generate the ideas for you! It’s great at that. I haven’t been super disciplined about it, but I’ve made it a habit to try to get especially vivid dreams down quickly. So far, I have a few images that really resonate with me to play with.
This weekend I’m going to try tackling a half-finished novella about a demon hunter who is possessed by a demon. I really like the character, but I don’t know where the story is going to end, so I need to work that bit out.
Happy weekend, all!