Oh my goodness, I did not realize how long it has truly been since I posted one of these. Seven months. I have been remiss in my commitment to putting these out to keep myself on track, and honestly there has been a lack in work to show for that. I am sorry, though more sorrow than apologetic. I just ought to do better.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however, and with certain things developing for me in the more than half a year since I posted one of these, I thought I should make damn sure I post one this month before the year is over with.

Short Fiction

Starting off most positively, in the intervening months I was paid for a short story that I wrote! I wish I could share more details than that, but in their acceptance of it I was asked not to publicly post about the specifics until I’m given more concrete details about when they use it. I was hoping that might be before now, but I will have to continue to be patient. I just didn’t want to leave the situation completely in the dark, as it’s a huge milestone for me.

Other than that, I’ve recently been informed that The Nature of Cities is holding another flash fiction contest. This time around it’s on a slightly different theme—the phrase “city in a wild garden”—and must be at most 750 words, rather than the previous 1,000. Stories are due on January 1, 2020. While I haven’t got an idea of what I want to write just yet, I really want to make another attempt with this contest. Even though I didn’t get far last time, I had a lot of fun taking part and it was good practice.

Novel

I have made progress on my novel fantasy novel (working title Dry Well) since my last post, though considering the amount of time it is much less than I should have had done by now. I believe I’m just over 10 pages in at the moment. I’m still working through the early phases, which I’m finding I have the most difficulty forming together. I’m much more enthused about what the characters will get thrown in to, but without the proper build-up why should anybody care?

Part of what has held me back is the division of my focus between reading, and writing about what I read, which is still very important to me too. Compounding that are the external pressures I put on myself from yearly reading challenges, leading me to have further trouble economizing my focus on these things. Next year I’m going to reel those challenges in so that I’m not constantly fretting about being behind on them.

That all being said, honestly, I’m also just undisciplined. It helps to say so. I’m taking steps toward improving that, having written more often this month already, though I’ll make an even greater push in the new year. I have a problem with dwelling upon my writing as it is now. I feel it’s flawed, which I’m sure it is, and let that get to me. This is despite knowing that before it’s ever going to be considered for publication aspects of it will be revised, rewritten, have content removed, have content added, revised, rewritten, and revised many times over.

I just have trouble stopping that pushy little goblin in my head that tells me if it isn’t perfect now, I have no business writing at all. Really need to stomp down that little sucker.

That’s it for this report. I hope you enjoyed reading my little update. I will try to be better about getting this up more often too, when appropriate. Thank you for reading.