I thought it would be a nice idea to recap each month’s writing experience, so that’s what I’ll do. Here’s the list of stories for June, from earliest to latest:

1. The Alien Mental Invasion
2. Welcome to the Collective
3. Countdown
4. Face

It’s worth noting that all of these stories appear to have been published on July 2nd, but that’s just the date they were moved onto WordPress. The first was originally posted on June 2nd.
And now to look at each story.

The Alien Mental Invasion

I was trying to get this whole project started and I remember thinking “I wish I could write science fiction.” This of course made me wonder why I thought I couldn’t write science fiction, especially given that I don’t have a reason to think I can write anything at all. So I jumped in with both feet and tried to be as derivative and cheesy as possible (hence the title). I don’t know if this ended up being a sci-fi story, per-se, but I like how it frames whatever it is actually about.

Welcome to the Collective

This might be a real sci-fi story, and it makes me wonder what else could exist in this world. California seems pretty stable, but where are the new citizens coming from and what have they experienced? The pamphlet/entry-form style wasn’t too constrictive, though I think halfway through you forget that’s what you’re reading.

Countdown

As I finished this story I realized that everything I’m writing is somehow about children and growing up. It’s worth noting that I’m 24 years-old as I’m writing this. I never kept a journal as a teenager, and I found using the format in fiction just as annoying as the narrator of the story. I worry it’s just too much work to keep track of the dates, basically forcing the reader to do math.

Face

This began as an experiment with information density, testing how much imagery could I put into each sentence. It quickly became a playground for run-on sentences. Still, I like that the tone is consistent in its own odd way. I imagine writing a book in this style would be a very taxing experience.