20111228 Status Report

Well, heck.  It’s been a while again.

I’ve been really busy.  I started Devon’s Year Long Workshop (Savvy Authors) about 4 months ago.

In that class, I decided to re-write my Queen of Balthazar story from scratch but this time, as a Steampunk sort of thing.  It’s still PURE Science Fiction but the world and civilizations are reminiscent of the Golden Age of Sail but it’s not an alternate history.  It’s the future.

I spent the first month doing Devon’s exercises and going through her process (supplemented, of course, by everything I’d learned from HTTS and HTRYN.)  I started writing in the second month and I’m approaching the end of three months of writing the first draft.  I’ve written 132950 words.  I think I’ve got another 40k to go and I should finish it in January.

I have to finish in January or I’ll get kicked out of the class.

I’ve also written two short stories and revised them.  I’d probably be done with the first draft of the novel now if I hadn’t spent so much time and effort on the short stories.  But the short stories are part of Devon’s process.

Writing those short stories really have taught me a lot about writing and about my process for revision.  I’ve got to start submitting these short stories by 1/4.  Which is kinda cool and kinda scary.  :)

One of the short stories is basically my Princess hero’s core event (although it’s told from another character’s POV) and it’s about 5000 words long.  The other is <1000 words and it’s just a funny little piece with my Donn Purson Urban Fantasy character.

They were a blast to write and I think I’m going to make short stories a regular part of my writing process from now on.