Many friends and fellow writers do Work In Progress Wednesday. It seems to work for them and as I am slowly getting back into my writing again, I thought I would give it a shot. New year, new me (sort of), new method to my madness.
One writer friend of mine has started work on a collection of short stories. I have wanted to do a collection for a while. When I was listen to details, I started thinking about my fictional setting, Lucin City, and my “in limbo” blog, Scattered Tales. I decided that what i need to do is a massive world building exercise and try to flesh out the setting more before I work on anything.
First step: Mapmaking
I already have a few stories and the first draft of my novel that has descriptions of key locations around the city. I made a rough map based on those descriptions that looks more like a flow chart than a map. Right now I’m in the middle of drawing a more detailed map using templates I found a while ago. What i hope to do is have a lots of blank buildings that I can use as settings for stories. If they are next to ones have used I will know what to incorporate to make the setting seem unified through all the stories.
Once that is done and start writing stories, on of the first ones will be what may actually turn into a novella. It’s a story I started way back in college and was where I created the setting of Lucin City. I still love reading the first sentences about the city in that story. It is also a prequel story to the novel I write for my Masters degree. As I work and finish other stories, I’ll submit them to markets. If they get accepted, great. If not, they will have a home in the collection or possibly Scattered Tales.
I also have ideas for a few anthology projects I’ve seen recently. The hard part is that the medicine I’m on makes me drowsy enough to make writing difficult. Do I try to push through and write for them, or concentrate on the collection? That is the question I still need to answer before the deadlines.
