Thursday – 1/5/2012 – Knee deep in the first weekly story of 2012, though I’m not exactly sure what to think about this one. I’m working off the idea from last week that was too long to do then, and am somewhat concerned it may be still too long to do now. I’m almost 5k deep, after adding 1.6k this morning, and I still haven’t quite gotten to the “action”-y bit. There’s a lot of good background information, but I’m not sure it’s all useful, and I’m sure it’s not all necessary. Ugh. I haven’t had an overwriting crash like this for years. I’m talking a whole lot, but the story is just crawling forward. At least I’ve gotten back in to writing in the AM, which is better–at night, I just never know when I’ll get time to sit down, and it’s a lot harder to make time after dinner. Plus, if I write too close to bedtime, my brain tends to have a hard time shutting down for the night, and I end up inadvertantly brainstorming for a few hours before actually falling asleep.
Friday – 1/6/2012 – SO. Didn’t realize until mid-day that yesterday was Thursday. DERP. [Dates in this journal are added post-week, for clarity.] Well, it’s official. I’ve written my first Big Bad Bear ending (and *no*, not Elizabeth BEAR, an actual bear, with teeth and claws and lots of fur). BBB endings came into effect in the first Chekhov year for those times when, after dutifully hacking away at a story, you suddenly realize that it is *way* bigger than a short story, and there’s no possible way you can complete it in time with a satisfying ending. In cases like this, to keep from having the urge to continue the story the following week and sneak in a short-short, I created the ending: “And then a bear came and ate [Character Name Here]. The End.” This doesn’t mean I won’t go back to this story and finish the ending when I’ve got time either this year or when I revisit it later in 2012, but it DOES mean I’ve given myself the OK to set it aside for now and ramp up for next week’s story guilt-free (or guilt-light, anyway). It was bound to happen one time or another, so at least this daunting fear is now out of the way. All that said, I actually rather like where this story is headed. I changed the plot mid-week, which revealed about a hundred other Hydra-head plot devices rearing their ugly–and interesting–mugs, so there’s plenty of fodder to use here. I could blame being sick on Sunday/Monday on the inability to officially finish this one on time, or I could blame the story idea being about ten characters and five scenes too big, or what-have-you. There are a million excuses. Disappointed that this one didn’t get to more than a summarized ending, but at least I’ve got it summarized, so when I come back to it, I’ll be able to wrap it up without too much trouble. And possibly expand it. Into a novella. Oh, boy. Week #10?–Not entirely successfully ended, but ended just the same. It happens.
ONWARD AND UPWARD.
Maggie Slater 