Progress Update and State of the Blog Address

The writing progress this week is, um, not what I'd like, but I'm doing more now that I've decided to revamp a few things in my life and in this blog (more below).

I wrote a fun scene from Thorny's point of view in The Misplaced Hero yesterday, and I wrote three (count 'em, THREE) micro-fiction stories today. And yes, you'll see one of them this weekend, and the other two may pop up on some other blog soon.

I did not feel like writing those stories, but it went like this: I go to Taco Bell a couple of times a week to gather my thoughts and maybe write or sketch. (Why I go to Taco Bell is for another blog post.) I did idly think of a story idea on the way there, but I was just going to take some notes and get on with plotting and planning and getting my head out of the business of the day.

But then I realized that I had waited one weekend longer than I had meant to before doing my taxes. Whoops. So I knew I would not be writing tonight. Which meant any writing I did at Taco Bell was it as far as meeting my goal for the day. So I set aside everything and started writing the first story, and then wrote another (which was inspired by a folk tale, so it was easy) and then I wrote another for which I only had a character and not an idea.

Knowing that your opportunity is limited does indeed concentrate the mind wonderfully. Yes, it's true, it can also freeze you up -- but I can say that when I realized I needed to really write, I did not want to write any idea I had. I didn't feel like it, but because that was my only opportunity, I didn't have much trouble at all.

State of the Blog: I'm still working on ways to improve this blog for both you and me. I've been blogging mainly off the cuff, and I find that is time consuming. I really need some structure to keep me from blathering on, then changing my mind and blathering on differently. Adding the Story Sunday (and Story Notes Monday) has helped a little to give me some structure, but I still have a hard time adhering to any other kind of plan.

So I'm going to nail down another day of the week with an external commitment: On Wednesdays (published late Tuesday nights, that is) I'm going to start posting mini-interviews with various authors about their characters. I've already got quite a few good interviews lined up. We'll call it Character Wednesday for now.

I'll start tomorrow with Ellen O'Connell, who will tell us about a character from her western romance, Sing My Name.

The other two things I'm going to do is update my dare word count in the side bar every day, and do a progress update every Tuesday, like this one. I'll use those Tuesday posts to tell you about how things are going on the ebook experiment as well.

And later this week, I'll probably tell you about my adventures in cover design.

See ya in the funny papers!