Nano Nano

Erm. I see it's been a while since my last post – tempus fugit, as the old dead dudes would say, although I think it's more relevant to quote the whole passage from Virgil's Georgics (thanks, Wikipedia!): Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore, or in the King's English “But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail.”

"Prisoners of our love of detail." Not a bad description for more than a few writers of my acquaintance.

Writing, I'm happy to say, has continued despite my blogging absence. I've gone from blank screen to the nearly-final-draft version of a new, and, for me, rather longish short story (another one that is almost there), and received a couple of new rejections of stories that I thought actually were there (“We appreciate the chance to review your work and wish you the best in finding the right home for this piece,” and the somewhat more encouraging “Unfortunately, it's not quite right for XXXXX so we're going to pass. Do feel free to send us more of your work though.”)

That was in September and October.

November has been all about Nano Nano 30 30. Which, by the way, has (almost) nothing to do with Mork & Mindy, nor the .30-30 Winchester cartridge. Inspired by NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month movement, Nano Nano 30 30 is my own bizarrely named and quite possibly misguided attempt at making November a productive writing month.

I've set myself the goal to write the openings of thirty short stories this month; a different story every day. Starting from scratch each session, and leaving any continuation or editing for the future.

How's it going? Well, twenty-four beginnings later, I'm still at it, although I'm not sure how many of them will be worth revisiting come December and beyond. They're short snippets of stories, in the 200 to 400 word range, and typically consist of little more than a place, a situation (hopefully with some elements of conflict and/or desire), a working title (a few examples: "Goths and Goblins," "After the Funeral," "Scars"), and a small number of named characters. Not a lot of hardwood fuel to sustain future writing sessions, but all in all a nice stack of tinder and kindling. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Nano Nano 30 30 to anybody else, and I doubt very much that I'll be doing it again next year, but I am writing something every day, and I do have quite the ferment of new characters bubbling around in my brain. I'm sure at least a few will survive.

They said I should feel free to send them more of my work. 

Well, I'm working. And I do feel free.

Thanks for reading,

Stephen.