Writing Update

       So, I've just hit the halfway point on the new novella. With the exception of a couple of minor setbacks, I've managed to meet my daily goal of 2,000 words. I tried a new method of outlining this time around, one I learned from Nancy Holder, and I think it's helped tremendously. When I first set out writing I was not an outliner. Far from it. I was what they call a "pantser" as in, I flew-by-the-seat-of-my-pants. The results were some decent scenes but a lack of cohesion on the whole.
     Then, some time last winter, when I was banging my head against the wall trying to slog through the first draft of my novel, I discovered the necessity (for me at least) of the outline. I live in true admiration of those who can make it up as they go and somehow get it right. I believe they have a more intuitive understanding of structure than I do, which is why I've got to have everything plotted out on color-coordinated notecards. Do I always stick to the outline? No. But it's a safety net, a roadmap in case I get lost, which I inevitably will.
     I believe this new outlining method, plotting out the story based on the three act structure and dividing the overall narrative into percentages, then dividing those percentages into scenes, is quite useful for me. Since the types of stories I tell are typically very action-oriented, this method works well. Would it work for a nonlinear slipstream story? Probably not. But then again, I don't write slipstream and nonlinear narratives give me a headache.
     So, now that I've written about the method, what about the story? Well, the kernel of the idea started some time ago, back when I was finishing up the last couple stories for my Kindle collection. I wanted to write a novella, about 30,000 words or 100 pages, set in that same universe, but not in the same city. I had the strange notion of an SF action adventure set in a futuristic Las Vegas-type colony on Phobos, Mars's closest moon, a sort of Die Hard in outer space with terrorists, gangsters, a high tech casino with an Aztec motif, and lots of sneaking around in ducts. It would be rollicking, over-the-top, guns-a-blazin', nail biting, edge-of-your-seat adventure. I plotted out the story, wrote some brief bios of the characters, and as soon as I got back from my winter residency, launched right into it. And I haven't stopped.
     Once I finish Die Hard in space (tentatively titled "Phobos Strike"), I'll do the cover art, editing and polishing, then get it up on Kindle whenever I have the time. When I get my novel manuscript back from my mentor, it's heavy revision time, and that'll probably take most of my attention for the next couple of months. In the meantime I want to finish the novella, start a new dark fantasy story (new genre for me), and polish a couple of shorts I've had sitting in a drawer for awhile before shopping them around. Oh, yeah, and there's also the matter of preparing my thesis and graduate presentation for July. Maybe one day they'll invent a chemical substitute for sleep and I'll be able to work 24/7. Until then... back to the grind.