So here’s the plan going forward:

December I’m going to do all the writing I can, but between moving the last week of the month and a big photo scanning project with a Christmas deadline, that might not be much.  I’ll be thrilled if I can add 10,000 words to the manuscript by the end of the month.

January I’m going to pick back up.  With my current estimate, that should leave me needing 30,000-60,000 words to finish the draft.  I’d love to get that done in one month, but I’m going to give myself a reasonable deadline of February 15th.

Then I’m going to sit down and do an honest assessment between Capsule and Conqueror Worm, and decide which needs less work to get into a position where I can shop it around.  Once I’ve decided, I’m going to start a chapter-a-week program to get it ready to go.  That will take several months, but once I’m about 2/3 through, I might start actually (gasp) sending query letters off to find a literary agent.

I know.

So there’s the plan.  It’s nearly New Years, a good time for resolutions, and for realizing that I said similar things about last year.  I don’t know how I’m going to do better this year, other than really hoping and trying.  And hopefully engaging some ass kickers to help me out.

I’ve also discovered, through his letters and other non-fiction writing, that a certain character of mine who shall remain nameless was a racist, xenophobic luddite.  And another character of mine is a Slavic inventor.  Which I’ve also got to take care of this draft.  And a certain horrific otherworldly realm of horrors and nightmares that shall remain nameless is presented as, if anything, silly in the first draft.  I always knew that was the problem, and was kind of hoping that would be the focuse of my second draft, reworking those sections, but with the need to potentially change the whole interpersonal dynamic between two characters…this is going to be a hell of an edit.

But really, I’ve gotten almost nowhere, and for that I blame the fact that I’m running off to get married in two weeks (my god, is it only two weeks?) and just haven’t had my mind in the game.  Hopefully when I get back, I’ll be more focused, and more ready to really tackle CVS 2.0 and the big editing pass on Conqueror Worm.

Oh, finally got my Writers of the Future rejection for Belmeth, a few weeks later than usual and after the submission deadline, but I didn’t have anything else ready to go anyway.  What with focusing on Conqueror Worm, my short story career right now will probably be to just cycle Belmeth, Sleep, and Div0 to a few different markets, possibly to include Escape and Pseudopod, which someone got me hooked on (though good timing, since my favorite radio station just got taken away, screw you very much CBS Radio).  The same someone that really needs to make a blog post about her vision for CVS 2.0, since she’s one of the ones who started it, dagnabbit.

…to prepare submit each of the seven stories from my previous entry for publication (at least one in the remains of 2008).

…to complete a full editing pass of Conqueror Worm and send out query letters within two months of this completion (not necessarily in 2009, but no later than the end of February 2010).

…to outline and draft an entire 42 minute script for an episode of Arkham on my own.

…to submit Arkham to a spec pilot contest, like People’s Pilot or Slamdance’s Teleplay Contest.  Glad to see you’re back, Slamdance!

And, if there’s time among all of that, there’s a few other projects I’d like to do, but won’t call Resoultions, as I suspect the above will take up plenty of my time but I hope…

…to finally update the look of this blog from template to my own little corner of the interwebs.

…to plot out an original feature-length screenplay for contest submission.

…to plot out a spec script for contest submissions.

…to finish worldbuilding of Capsule in hopes of approaching next Nanowrimo much more prepared to actually write it.

There we go.  Keeping myself honest yet again.

Well, that really just summed it up right there.  My thing-a-week project has come to a crashing failure around me, but really…I have to say I’m okay with that.  For a couple reasons.

Reason the first.  The short stories had moved from fun to grind.  Writing should not be a grind, it should never be a grind.  The point of writing is to have fun with it, but I wasn’t having fun anymore with the stories.  Every week I was dreading them more and more.  And that’s just not the way to get anywhere.

Reason the second.  I was leaving stuff behind.  I’ve got several other long term projects in the work, and I figured I’d be able to work on them in the background while also working on the stories.  No dice.  Haven’t been able to touch the novels I’d like to be editing, haven’t been able to help on the TV pilot I’ve been working on with my girlfriend, haven’t been able to work on my own planned spec script.  And, most importantly, haven’t been able to work on my blog.  Hi there!

Reason the third.  I still feel like I’ve learned something through all of this.  I experimented with some different voices, structures, and genres.  Some of them I was comfortable with.  Some I was uncomfortable with.  It’s good to know where I excel, where I’m weak, and frankly to focus on the former.  I know, I know, I’m supposed to grow as a writer, but I think I can do that just fine while acknowledging that my strength is not thrillers and avoiding getting into a big one of those.

So.  Here I am, at the far end of the project, but not as far of a far end as I’d hoped.  I’m staring down Nanowrimo now, trying to figure out just exactly what it is I want to do for it.  I’m also starting to figure out which of two novels to edit first, and how to get started on the spec script I mentioned.  The biggest hurdle is to tell myself “THIS ISN’T FAN FICTION” enough that I finally start believing it.  Because…well, it is fiction, and it is written by a fan, but since I’m going to be writing it in teleplay format and submitting it to contests, that makes it different.

I’m also going to get back to this blog, I swear, updating it more with my projects, my progress, and my thoughts about writing.  So let’s start with the upcoming projects:

• Editing novel: Conqueror Worm
• Editing novel: End of the Line
• Nanowrimo (?)
• Preparing short story for submission: !Div0
• Preparing short story for submission: The Doorman
• Preparing short story for submission: The Queen of Belmeth
• Spec Script: The Office: The Big Debut

There we go.  All put down so that people can hold me to them.  I’ll talk about what each one actually is as I work them.  Current project: The Queen of Belmeth.