Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?

...is harder some days than others. Today, for instance. I'm having trouble coming up with story ideas to use as "seeds" for stories. I reject a lot of them as dull, boring, unworkable or otherwise unsuitable.* So I dithered a little before I sat down today with nothing in the pipeline to start from.

But I opened the folder that contains half a dozen previous openings that never went anywhere. I picked one and started the clock. And started writing. Wrote this morning, had lunch, then wrote more this afternoon. And managed to produce 2800 words.

Do I think what I've written is saleable? No. Not as it stands. Do I think it's interesting? Yeah, maybe. But it's not a story at this point--and not just because it isn't complete. Will I be able to turn it into a story? I don't know. But at the very least, I've accomplished this: I wrote more than my minimum words for the day despite having nothing on tap when I sat down to the keyboard. That's good. Good fodder for programming my subconscious with the belief that I CAN do this, and good discipline. Sit. Write. Write more. Quit only when you've reached your goal for the day (or even better, exceeded it).

*Perhaps I should look into advice on brainstorming. I know it's out there. Perhaps I'm being too critical of my ideas when they're still only a figurative gleam in my eye. Perhaps if I'm not so quick to dismiss an idea and instead try to nurture it, it'll bloom into an actual story.

Anyhow. Having done my day's writing, I felt the mood to clean fall upon me. So I just finished washing all the dishes in the kitchen, and clearing away some clutter, and scrubbing the counters and the stovetop, and sweeping the floor. The floor really needs to be mopped as well, but...not today. But it'll be a nice surprise for my lovely and talented wife when she gets home tonight.


Words Written Today: 2,849
Words Written YTD (since May 1): 36,661
Streak (500+ words/day): 22 Days
Stories in Circulation: 6 (another one in the mail today)
Rejections: 3
Stories Accepted: 0

Today's new fiction total: 3,102 words. New daily word count record! (Cue the tickertape parade....)

I may just be on to something with this new approach. On the other hand, I see that if I'm going to be producing this kind of volume on a regular basis, I'm going to have to have a lot more story ideas lined up ready to go. I only had a couple of story concepts written down for this week. At my previous average daily output, that would have been enough for the week.

Both of them are now mostly finished. A little tweaking and they should be done and ready to send out. Which means I have nothing in the pipeline for tomorrow or Friday. So I guess tonight I'll have to rough out some concepts for more stories.


Words Written Today: 3,102
Words Written YTD (since May 1): 27,951 (Woo! An average of slightly over 1,000 words a day for May)
Streak (500+ words/day): 17 Days
Stories in Circulation: 5
Rejections: 3
Stories Accepted: 0