Updates

A bike ride is an excellent method for getting over plot dysfunctions. The key is: you have to have been working on the issues so they are in your brain before you go on the bike ride. Then, the lowered stress and increased oxygen do their thing, and the solution pops into your brain. A solo walk can do the same thing. So, now the last plot holes are filled, and I’ve used Daniel Abraham’s method to plot out the entire story, ready for writing.

Of my two short story ideas, the second one is almost fully worked out, though there are rough bits. The next thing I plan to do is plot it with Daniel Abraham’s plotting process (which worked well for the last story), and I hope to write on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. Let’s see how far I get in three days.

Yep. Just goes to show, thinking is the most important part of writing a story. I put together the ideas for my Mercury story in two sessions on the back of the motorcycle, then used Daniel Abraham’s model for plotting out the narrative/information/function of the scenes, and then I wrote and revised the story in 2 days. Not even very long days. Now it is sitting in a drawer so I can revise it from a fresh viewpoint, though I’m pretty sure scene 1 needs to be cut. Typical. But after all that thinking, the story just wrote itself. Nice.

Sometimes it doesn’t rain but it pours. I haven’t had a short story idea for a while (probably because I have been so caught up in working on my novels) but while on the back of the motorcycle, I have had 2 great ideas in the last week. I guess sitting on the back of a motorcycle is a low-stress activity.

One will be the basis for my story about the planet, Mercury, and the other has to do with a comment by Jane Goodall about how poverty is one of the three central pillars that needs to be addressed to fight habitat and species reduction.

Finished my novel edits and submitted to 2 agents I met at the Nebulas in Chicago. Yay! Also, the cover of “Burnt” is revealed (my story, “Earth and Flame” is in it). Also, Yay!