My schedule shifted pretty significantly this month, from writing mid-week to almost exclusively on Saturdays. I think this is mainly because it feels strange to come home from programming all day just to start doing more typing. It seems the stories are longer when I write them on days off, which led to my first multi-part story. I leave it to the reader to decide whether this is a good thing.
The Merge
I wrote this on the July Fourth, the weekend that The Purge: Election Day was released. Does this count as parody? Well it’s not really comedic. Maybe it’s just stealing an idea, even if I did invert the conceit. Hmm, that’s a fancy way of saying “bizarro world” isn’t it? I do find this world quite interesting, though. My main concern with this story is that the ending feels like the beginning of something much larger.
Jon Met a Tabby
This has something in common with The Alien Mental Invasion in that I would write everything this way if I thought it wasn’t too hack: an omnipotent voice in conflict with Mary Sue. It’s really interesting in Breakfast of Champions but I can’t even touch Cat’s Cradle, so calm down, self. Also, I debated whether to use my name at the end and eventually decided it was worth it. Hey Mom, if you’re reading, I don’t do heroin. It’s all bathsalts all the time, like a gentleman.
The Brass Nerve, 1 & 2
Most of this story I worked out in my head while falling asleep. It pretty much started with the image of a private investigator named Jane vaping outside of a bar and grew from there. I decided embracing another genre would be another good exercise. Words such as “cyberette” and “E-stablishment” are just too cheesy to not use. Tasty melty cheese.
I have the major plot points of the next part (or two) outlined. I may take a break to write some kind of dumb, non-plot-driven story. This will be a good framework to work on developing a whole character arc, though. Maybe ten years from now I’ll be eight books deep into the adventures of Jane Brass.
Harmless Writing 