Okay.  So.  I’d really like to write a blog post on something to do with writing and/or my stories.  But it seems…like it would be inappropriate at this particular juncture? 

I’ve got nothing published so far, except for half of my first Serial-Steam-of-Consciousness Story (SSCS; on this blog).  And realistically it’s going to be years before any of my work is noticeably more available than that.

(Okay, to be perfectly accurate: In high school, 2 or 3 of my poems were published across 2 school literary magazines (I don’t suppose any of you have those issues, do you?).  And I have first-author credentials on 3 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles (slightly more accessible).  But I’m not a poet, and this is not a work-related blog.)

Also, that half an SSCS you’ve seen so far is in a…rather random style.  It’s not a great example of what most of my writing is like.  I write fantasy, but fantasy where I mostly write about humans (or human-shaped people), not indefinably twiggy, winged scout things who live for hundreds of years and can fly through outer space.  I write fantasy, but usually the kind with just a little bit of magic, not blood incantations and breathing in outer space.  Usually what I write has a plot – probably too much plot; everything comes out longer than it’s supposed to.

And slower.  I’m tempted to show you a picture of my wordcount over time (I like excel spreadsheets a bit too much), but for some reason I’m too shy just yet.  Let me assure you that it says that, at my very fastest (i.e. rarely), I can manage 80,000 words in one year, which is not even as great as it sounds when my books want to be at least 160,000 words long and that speed doesn’t count any of the time it takes for revisions (or getting up to speed).

I do actually like revisions, though.  (I would say there’s less suspense in working on revisions (I have anxiety; less suspense is nice) but I’ve also said in the past that working on a cross-stitch can be suspenseful, so I might not be considered a shining authority on suspense in general.)  And considering how many years I spent on other authors’ blogs and websites trying to figure out how to do this stuff, I’d kind of like to do a post-or-three about different kinds of revisions.  But…what revisions can I talk about if I have nothing published?  It would be…weird.

Maybe I can do some bits of advice/reassurance I’d like to throw back to early-writer me? the one who was so baffled about how any of it worked (especially transitions – actually, transitions are still sort of close-your-eyes-and-just-believe-they-will for me, so…).

Okay.  So:

1. The terrifying stuff will get better.  You’ll actually learn to like writing dialog, but that requires doing and practicing, so stop avoiding it.  (Although your contortions performed while trying to avoid it are hilarious.)
2. Don’t believe other writers who say you have to know the end before you start writing.  Anything that stops you from moving forward is BAD advice.  Don’t listen to them.
3. The end of a story has to speak to what the story is about.  Figure out what it’s about and you’ll be able to figure out how to end it.  (I cannot remember on whose blog or website I found this bit of advice in my desperate, desperate searching, but Thank You! to that person.)

In completely other, non-advice, news:

• I am currently working on a book I wrote the first part of in 2015.  It has firmly resolved itself into being the first of two books necessary to cover this story.  Drat.
• I have two books done out of a trilogy, for a different story.
• I am currently rotating work on three SSCS’s, which is my standard.  Still not clear if that’s necessarily a good standard…but it does produce variety.
• I have various done SSCS’s and “short stories”, where ‘various’ = nearly 9, and ‘short’ = somewhere between 4- and 25-thousand words.
• One day I will figure out how to properly publish things.
• One day I will be brave enough (and otherwise ready) to publish something somewhere other than this blog.