On Writing

A boring discussion of my writing progress and methods.

I'm keeping to my personal goals for the year very well so far. I'm actually head of my target of one short story a month. For the month of January, I've written one 9000 word story and one 4000 word story. Total word count for the month is probably closer to 20,000 words, counting the Daily Cabal, Roundbottom, and false starts that I have collected.

I still have the most success if I can write the story from start to finish in one sitting. I also have found that if I outline the story, scene by scene ahead of time, that my arc works a hell of a lot better than it does without. I can write without an outline, but I think it takes more drafts to beat it into shape. It feels good to be figuring out what kind of writer I am--to be identifying my strengths and weaknesses in my methods. Wish I hadn't just learned that I'm an outline writer though. I rebel against the concept, but I can't argue with what works.

Whether the stories are any good or not? That I can't really make up my mind about. I would call the work promising, I guess, but not the best that I can do when I'm at the top of my form. Still, I'm trying not to be hard on myself. I'm out of practice. I'll get there again in no time with this pace.