whilewaitingtobepublished.com

I’ve just finished the 37th story in my 74 Stories Project:  I am now halfway through the project of following Ray Bradbury’s advice to write, finish, and send out 1 short story a week.  (This was  in the age of typewriters, so some of that week would have been devoted to the mechanics of re-typing the entire manuscript in order to make corrections.)   I can finish 2 short stories a week if I clear the decks, turn off the phone, compose directly into the computer, get an unusually good first draft and get away with very minor revisions.

The 74 number is arbitrary:  I don’t want to do this forever.  (I have 13 novels and novellas which need some degree of revision, from “there’s nothing after page 43" (it needs to be written or typed from a handwritten first draft) to “do a last check to make sure nothing violates series chronology and go over the details of fermenting soy sauce”.)  I chose the non-round number of 74 because all of these stories are part of the novel The 75th Story.  I am not simply writing any 74 stories I can think of:  these 74 stories are in order, have an overall character arc, 5 continuing characters and a universe shared with 18 other novels and novellas.  When I add them to The 75th Story I will need to add transitional scenes:  recurring characters drop in and out between the 74 stories; new characters join the protagonists needing to be taken to their scheduled destinations, jail, or a hospital; and the main protagonist has a long-distance marriage to keep up which is new and not yet on a firm foundation.  (He mentions his husband in some of the stories but there is no time in a 5,000 word short story to dwell on a relationship that takes place completely outside the story’s frame.)

I feel very pleased, surprised and proud to be at the halfway mark on this project.  When I started I wondered how soon I would quit, or find a hobby (like cleaning antique typewriter letters with a toothpick) more interesting, or if this year would be yet another with a significant illness or some other unavoidable matter.  By now I have settled into a routine, I feel comfortable writing at this pace, I have no trouble coming up with 2,000-8,000 words every few days, I revise because I hate to see things starting at my from my computer's desktop, and I can look forward to the first of these stories "No Woman, No Plaything" being published in Kaleidotrope.

Read "No Woman, No Plaything" in Kaleidotrope