What have I been doing lately?
I just finished the first draft of a completely new story two days ago. It was supposed to become a short story and some people will still count it as that with about 13k-14k words (different algorithms get to different results). It is called “Sleep Zone” and it’s a “25-minutes-into-the-future” Science Fiction setting. The world is a much safer and better place due to a wonderful new technology called SleepZone, which law enforcement have been using to simplify their work. Ocean, a young journalism student, is looking for the police officers responsible for her brother’s death. Through a lucky – or unlucky – incident she meets someone with connections to help her. I am currently working in removing the worst blunders, plot-holes and grammar errors from this story. In a couple of weeks it will be ready for critique by a couple of first readers.
I’ve also spent quite a bit of time listening to Writing Excuses. I do this when I go running. Suddenly going for a run is much more appealing and less boring! I am nearly done with Season 2. And today my signed copy of Shadows Beneath, the anthology to the podcast arrived. Yay! Finally a package from the US that made it through without incident. It’s a beautiful book, but I’ve already been into the digital version that’s included with the book. It contains four short stories one by each of the podcasters and it also includes the initial brainstorming sessions, the first drafts, the work-shopping sessions and a merge of first and final draft to show differences. I’ve already learned a lot from simply reading the first of the brainstorming sessions. Of course I read all the stories first, couldn’t resist.
And I am already thinking about my next story. I may start out with an ending this time. Usually I develop a story from a setting, in which I place characters from which I try to derive a plot. I have a hard time creating great conflicts that lead to good endings. So I may start with an ending. Today’s Writing Excuses episode gave me a good idea with their writing prompt of the day. And I can’t tell you, because the end should be a little bit of a surprise, if you know ahead of time … 😉 I also plan to force myself down to 5-7k words for real this time.
Here’s a teaser from “Sleep Zone”
Continue reading “Working on a new story: SleepZone”