Okay, so I tapped out of NaNoWriMo at 15,000 words. I consider that an accomplishment. It’s the longest I’ve spent with one character in a really long time. My reasons are varied, and I’m not going to bore you with all of them.
The biggest reason is I just don’t have time. And I want to devote what energy I have to the collection of short stories I’ll be releasing next year. NaNoWriMo can be a great motivational tool, if you need something to help you put words on paper. But, right now, I just don’t.
I keep getting new story ideas and I want to write them, instead of work on a crappy novel that I’ll likely never edit and never release.
I’ve also decided to retool this blog. We’re nearing the 1-year anniversary of T.R.O.A.M.M. and, as such, I want to change things up. I originally started this thing as an exercise in free-form writing. I didn’t plan. I didn’t edit. I just wrote. That started falling to the wayside as the year moved on and by 6 months, it was nearly non-existent.
So, I’m turning this into more of a blog-blog. A chance for me to write essays and columns and jokes. I’ll still occasionally do some off-the-cuff stuff. But, it’ll be rare.
Instead I’m going to do regular features! And since I love alliterations, they’re going to have alliterative titles!
Technique Tuesday – By far the most pretentious of the regular features, on TT I’m going to discuss writing in general. I’ll probably focus on some technique or rule that I’ve been practicing in my own writing.
Flash Fiction Friday – I love Flash Fiction. It’s the ultimate exercise in brevity. If you don’t know, Flash Fiction attempts to tell a story in under 1,000 words. My Flash Fiction usually runs around 500. On Fridays, you’ll get a chance to read a complete story in a bite-sized chunk.
Status Saturdays (Or Satusdays. Or Staturdays. I’m going with Staturdays) – I mentioned my short story collection up above. There’s a link on the left which will give you more information. On Saturdays, I’m going to provide updates on the status of the project. On one day, I may post an excerpt. Or maybe I’ll discuss how I’m organizing the stories. Things like that.
Anyway, I hope to see you come back. I hope to see you continue to read. I hope you enjoy what I’m doing. If not, I hate you.