The Summer’s Flying

Posted by Merry in Merry's Blog

Jul
20

As always it feels like the summer is just flying by. I don’t know what it is about this season — maybe it’s because I love it so much, but every year it feels like summer gets shorter and shorter. :P

We’ve had a lot of projects going on lately that have been pulling my attention away from writing, but I have finally managed to finish off Chapter Thirteen. I’d gotten stuck for a little while in between scenes — I knew exactly what needed to happen but oddly I think a part of me was hesitant to write it because I wasn’t fully confident I could pull it off with the same energy that the rest of the story has. The scene felt like it was dragging its way out of me in a sort of lackluster fashion, but taking a break and coming back to it has been a huge help. I think maybe it was my own feelings that were somewhat lackluster, not the story itself, and I needed to come at it from a fresh perspective in order to get it where I needed it to be.

As usual I read a bunch of books in between and drew inspiration from them. Went back through what I have written so far and did a bunch of editing. By the time I arrived at the spot where I was stuck, the story started to flow for me again, yay!

Anyway, we’ve hit 75,000 words now. About 70% through the manuscript at this point. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to set the book aside again for the next few days, because there’s a paranormal anthology I’ve been invited to write for and therefore, a short story that I need to get done. I think I’ve mentioned before that I really, really struggle to write short stories. I inevitably hate them when I’m finished, and it takes multiple readings much, much later to convince myself that they really are all right.

But, short stories are important and valuable media for a writer. They get your work into the hands of those who might not otherwise pick up your books just off the bat, and hopefully they intrigue those readers enough to go out and give your full-length stuff a try. Not to mention that, since they’re particularly challenging for me, I really *ought* to be making myself write them more often, just for the “workout.” So, short story it is. I have the first couple of pages of a ghost story written, and ten days before the submission deadline, so I have to get crackin’!

Also wanted to mention again that I will be leading a round table discussion of Queer Monsters at this year’s upcoming Sirens Conference. The conference is being held in Vail, Colorado in early October, with such distinguished featured guests as Laini Taylor, Nnedi Okorafor, and Justine Larbalestier. I’m really looking forward to it and I hope to see some of you there as well! Just take a look at some of their accepted programing so far… I’m going to have a really hard time deciding which sessions to attend!!