Whoa…and just like that, I’m back.

It’s no secret that writer’s feel fatigue.  Mattew Inman, writer of the web comic The Oatmeal, once likened the creative process to continually inhaling, noting that one could only keep it up so long before needing to exhale.  Well, even though I’ve been back at it for a few months, I’m still not in mid-season form as far as writing is concerned, so perhaps I need to exhale a bit more frequently.  But tonight I feel myself getting stronger.

After having slogged through a mere few paragraphs for the past week, I had begun to worry that I’d hit a wall again with Samarkand.  That ended tonight, as I broke off a 2,000 word run, on top of my 1,000 odd word free write this morning.  This is starting to feel familiar.

Needless to say, I’m excited to see what the rest of the week holds, and with that, here’s what’s in store:

Samarkand

As I said, today was a good day for my current work-in-progress.  The chapter I’m currently working on serves as something of an interlude in the action, separated into two parts.  The first part deals with an interaction between two members of the crew who are romantically involved, introducing their romantic subplot while also helping to set up the action for the subsequent chapter.  The second part, which I will be starting tomorrow, involves the commander of the ship, Franklin Bedford, discussing what’s at stake with his chief medical officer.  All of this leads up to the penultimate chapter of phase one, in which the crew will conduct a low-altitude maneuver around a large comet.

Thus far, the process of writing Samarkand has been markedly different from that of writing Wide Horizon, and not only in the ways I’d anticipated.  I think, to some extent, I still find the prospect of writing this novel intimidating: every time I sit down to write, I keep thinking I either can’t do it or won’t really enjoy it.  As such, I’ll admit at times things get off to a slow start.  But so long as I keep myself in front of the computer, keep writing, the words come.  And pretty soon a slow trickle turns into a flood, as it did tonight.  Even now, I’m not fully convinced I’m done writing for the night.  I may end up finishing the chapter, if only because I already have a clear idea of where it’s headed.

The most gratifying takeaway I had tonight is that this is getting easier.  At last, the overall framework of the story is developing from a premise confined to my notes into one firmly planted in my mind.  I can improvise, and now when the story takes an unexpected turn I find myself pleased with the results.  The characters have taken on a life of their own (a few of them, anyway), to the point where I can riff off of what I have and produce new ideas on the fly.  This is very promising.

I’m also pleased to report that, at last, I have a clear idea of what, precisely, the Susan Constant looks like, and to say it differs greatly from my initial concept would be an understatement.  I plan on making a post sometime soon explaining in greater detail (perhaps for this week’s WIP Wednesday).

Pathfinder

Though it’s been back-burnered for the time being, my original starting point for When We Left Earth hasn’t gone away.

I continue to find my notes on Pathfinder indispensable while writing Samarkand.  The design notes continue to inform my work, but I’ve also started getting a better idea of how things will unfold if and when I decide to pick the story back up.  Just today, I used one of the major political figures of the story to produce one of my best free writes to date, one I’m sure will develop into an excellent short story.

Short Fiction

As I said, this morning’s free write shows definite promise as a short story, but this week what work I put in on short subject will be focused on cleaning up my existing manuscripts for a fresh round of submissions.

Recently, I finally had a short story accepted for publication.  Presence, a science fiction love story, will be appearing in Z Publishing’s Emerging Writers anthology.  It won’t pay me anything, but at this point I just really wanted to see something I’d written in print.  That being said, I won’t really feel satisfied until I get something to print in a major sci-fi literary journal.  Thus, the battle continues.

While I plan to spend some time this weekend working on a few outstanding projects and wrapping up the rewrite of I am 1, I think I’m finally ready to send out a few existing manuscripts.  Most have nearly exhausted their potential targets, but I won’t get anything published by not sending anything out.  So, here we go again.

 

I’m excited.  Things feel really good right now, and I only hope that this continues.  I haven’t felt this good about my writing in years, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me from here.  Keep dreaming, and I’ll keep you posted. – MK