Short Pieces

Y’all may note I did not get to write yesterday. Which makes Anna cranky, and yet, there wasn’t much to be done; long-overdue checkbook balancing had to happen, to prepare for end-of-month bill paying. Including a big unexpected nasty medical bill that rolled in. Bah.

But I tried to make up for that tonight, and 418 words doesn’t suck. Finished a scene as well and at least got Caleb, Dorcas, and Elias teaming up to head out to Roanoke Island.

I’m not sure about how this thing flows yet. The voice in the back of my head is still going “But I should explain…” I’m still having to shut it up. Because no, I shouldn’t, at least no more than absolutely necessary. I am still trying to keep this thing as short as possible, although I’m closing in on 3K now, and I’ll be surprised if I don’t top 10K. Yet I should still minimize the words. We’ll see how I do.

More tomorrow, I hope.

Written tonight: 418
The Blood of the Land total: 2,880

So yesterday I pulled off the biggest chunk of new writing I’ve done in a while: over 600 brand new words in my Civil War story, “The Blood of the Land”. Broken Warder Elias Sutherland is now on camera and introduced by name, much to the shock of escaping slaves Dorcas and Caleb, and Dorcas is quite astonished to learn that this white man not only has Power akin to hers, he’s even calling her ma’am. Joint escape plans are about to be hatched, although I daresay Caleb’s going to have something to say about eluding their pursuers by making for a haunted island.

We’ll see how much I get done today! Hoping to hit a thousand. And, needless to say, the likelihood of this story being on the longer side has definitely gone up.

Before I do today’s writing, though, going to head out for a walk down to the Sunday Farmer’s Market. Because sunshine and exercise will do me good.

Written yesterday: 665
The Blood of the Land total: 2,462

It was so brutally hot here in Kenmore last night that it was impossible for me to comfortably use my laptop. Which meant that I had to try writing on my iPhone. Newly-christened Mnemosyne was game for the task, but unfortunately, I wasn’t; I was so worn out from the heat that I had barely enough brain to manage taking a nice cool shower and then falling into bed.

I did at least manage to get out about a hundred words, though. Hopefully now that it seems to be cooling off, I can get back in gear tomorrow. Tonight’s been shot due to power outages and a sick cat.

Written last night: 98
The Blood of the Land total: 1,769

I slept very poorly last night, which has meant that the words are not flowing like they should be tonight. But I was determined not to let this heat wave beat me–certainly not when it’s only just getting started–and so I wrenched out a couple hundred words anyway.

But now I desperately need sleep, and I’m off to get some.

Written tonight: 211
The Blood of the Land total: 1,671

It was a little bit less like pulling teeth today, getting the words out of my brain.

I’m learning all over again the same lesson I learned writing “The Disenchanting of Princess Cerridwen”, though, which is to say: writing short is hard. I keep having to rein myself in every time I catch myself thinking “but but but I should explain–” No, I tell myself, I shouldn’t. Not when I want to keep this word count down as much as possible. has given me a wide range of word count to play with, but I still want to come in closer to 5K than 25K if at all possible. Just to see if I can.

I’m already thinking I may not be able to, though. I’ve got this story more or less planned out, and if I write it according to my notes, it’ll come out longish anyway.

But first I have to write it. Two days in a row at 500+ words though does not suck.

Written today: 530
The Blood of the Land total: 1,460

Tried to get myself in gear on the Civil War story today, since there’s a deadline coming up for this. And for the first time in some while, I’ve actually managed to write 500 new words on something. This feels good. Hope I can do it again tomorrow.

Written on Thursday: 252
Written today: 509
The Blood of the Land total: 930