David Thurston has... » Weekly

…his first Cover Song

David Thurston — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:14:39 +0000

One of the interesting things about taking my cue from a singer is that I start thinking about this in terms of musical terms. If that’s the case, then what I’ve finished is my first (though not last) Cover Song within this process. Cover Songs, of course, are the idea of taking someone else’s song, and making it your own. In this case it’s taking someone else’s idea and making it my own. It’s not going to be something I do a lot of, but it’s hard not to see an idea, see a different way of approaching it, and wanting to make it my own.

I’m not saying better. Just differently.

Also, I’ve now hit the point where I’ve made my way through five weeks of this process, and I’m now into month number two. This is the point where I wondered if I would start breaking. My longest sustained writing processes in the past have always been Nanowrimo, one month of hard work at the end of which I find myself burned out. This is different. Now granted, I’ve written about one quarter of the words that I would have in Nanowrimo, but each week I’m starting over in a way Nanowrimo doesn’t require. New styles of writing, new characters, a new plot. I figured it would balance itself out. But I still feel good, and I’m excited about getting into month two.

This week is going to be a tough one, though. I’m leaving tomorrow for Vegas, driving to San Fran, and won’t be getting back until next Friday, so that’s entire writing week spent on the road. I’ve got a concept in mind that will be more a series of vignettes than a single story, something I can squeeze in as I can go.

Wish me luck.

…gone rather AWOL

David Thurston — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:31:21 +0000

What? Huh? I’m here, I’m here. It’s been rather a balance between writing and writing about not writing, and the former will always win out. So a status update. Week three was a success, a short story but one I feel good about. Really, as I’m getting back into a habit of writing, I’m getting happier and happier with what I’m writing. Week four is off to a slow start because I had a major certification exam yesterday, and was cramming for and taking that rather than working on my silly little short stories. With that out of the way, I’ve got a shortened week of three days to get this week’s story finished.

So…I guess right now I am writing about not writing. Oops.

This week’s story will be the first in what I hope will be a series of me exploring various, not genres, but subgenres. Ones that fascinate me, ones I think I can do, and even a few I think I can’t do. This week’s story is meant to be a direct homage to the first person horror pulp stories of the 20s and 30s, primarily the more journal style Lovecraft pieces. It’s inspired loosely by a novel that my lovely and talented girlfriend is working on, and the working title right now is The Queen of Helmeth.

…entered Week Three

David Thurston — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:59:46 +0000

Yeah, Week Two was a success. I didn’t say so, because I had to choose to either finish writing my Week Two story or write about writing my Week Two story, so the former won out. I like it a LOT more than what I produced in Week One, though I’ve already got some changes that I want to make to it. And will be making this week, as for those of you in CVS, it’s what you’re going to see me submit next week, and it’s got to be ready for the August contest.

This week’s story is going to be a short one, to give me some time to edit The Doorman. It’s a little trifle about time travel and blasphemy. Always a winning combination.

…gone “crinkle crinkle TOSS!”

David Thurston — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:23:53 +0000

Sometimes, you’ve just got to start over. Week Two is in full swing, and my first hurdle of the project has been met. This week’s story is an attempt to craft a submission for the upcoming Permuted Press anthology The World Is Dead. The anthology is a good fit for a few of the stories on my concepts list, so I’m going with an idea called The Doorman. Problem is, and here’s the hurdle, I started writing it, got about 600 words in, and realized it sucked and it needed to go in a completely different direction. One character was unbelievable, I didn’t understand motivations, and just bleh.

Sometimes, you’ve just got to start over. I knew in a second draft, every single one of those words would be cut. I mean, not EVERY one of them. There were a few “the”s, “and”s, and “a”s in there that I thought were quite strong, but those are such dime-a-dozen words I don’t ming throwing them away and making new ones. So the false start has been torn apart, and I started over. I’m about 900 words into a story that has to be at least 2000 words, and I’m feeling much better about it this time.

Victory shall be mine.

…finished Week One

David Thurston — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:21:51 +0000

What can I say, I started with something fairly easy, a story that I knew would be under 1000 words and that I had mostly outlined in my head. But still, success is success! It has some troubles, I know I’ve got a rather severe point of view issue in the story, but the point of victory is draft one. Draft two will likely happen later this week.

I’ve also added a story concept to the list, which means a net loss of zero this week. Which is the kind of thing I hope to be able to keep up.

…entered Week One

David Thurston — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:56:09 +0000

I don’t have any words on paper yet, electronically speaking, but Week One is officially underway. In what I consider to be a strategic move, I’m picking the shortest story among the 15 concepts I’ve got banked to start with, hoping that’ll provide me a nice momentum boost. Also because I’ve got another writing project that I need to polish into a contest submission packet.

The title of the first story: Carbon Offsets.

…a crazy scheme

David Thurston — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:05:57 +0000

If you’re reading this blog, you likely already know about my crazy little scheme. I’ve talked about it at Cat Vacuuming, where most of the readers of this blog are likely coming from, and it’s in a nice little link up there in the right hand corner. The whole scheme is something that I’m calling Weekly Storytelling, mostly because the phrase “Thing a Week” has already been used by someone much more talented than I. But that’s enough self effacing, what’s the grand scheme?

The idea, just as the name suggests, is going to be writing a short story a week for at the very least a full year. Frankly, if I can keep going after that, all the better, but the initial goal is to just make it that one year. Fifty-two weeks. Fifty-two stories. That’s not too many, is it? The further goal, and the much bigger one for me, will be to actually SHOP these stories around. It’s not something entirely new to me, I do have one story sale in a now-defunct anthology.

So that’s the plan. That’s the goal. I’ve got a bit of a head start, I’ve been stock piling some ideas, enough for nearly two months, should I actually be able to turn some vague premises into actual plot lines. But that’s not hard.

Right?