'ello! So I've been (trying to) write short stories every Friday since this year began! Since we are halfway through the year, and halfway through all the Fridays of the year, I've decided to push back the upcoming short and do a little self-assessment on what I've written thus far. This turned a bit more rambly and stream of consciousness, but feel free to read below the cut.
You can also read all my short stories here:
https://electrospherevaults.tumblr.com/post/739328501342158848/2024-friday-writing-challenge-masterpost
So, after 25 weeks, I have in total written 11 short stories, 10 of which have been published, which are largely complete and finalized! That's about 40-44% of the weeks so far with a published/written short! The most productive period was in the beginning, with a streak of 7 shorts written in a row.
There was also the participation in the SIGNALIS zine, which took a lot of time in March. I wrote two great pieces which were well liked, and I even shared them on AO3. I've also started editing the SIGNALIS fic ECHOS: The Silicon Queen, which is a really great fic y'all should read!
Then came the drought. As mentioned, March was a month devoted to the zine, so only one short story was written, which I feel disatisfied with; the ending was a bit rushed and I feel i could have worked on it further. Then, April really passed without a single story written, and May, which I had aimed to be a SIGNALIS-themed month on my writing blog, and to focus on writing Maiden on my off-time, also turned disastrous as only the pieces for the zine that I had finished back in March were published. Ngl, I'm disappointed with the output in spring, especially because the first June piece was planned a good deal early into May.
May especially felt disappointing because I had also participated in a writing marathon for the month, and I only walked away with ~12'000 words written for book 2 of the Defiler trilogy. Not a bad wordcount by any means, but when those words were produced in just the first week and then the rest was spent not writing... It kinda sucks, ngl
Alas, at least I finished the aforementioned Signalis short and published it on the first Friday of June, and I followed it up with another short in the second Friday, which I felt was really good. The third short I had begun last Friday, but I've been stuck in a rut about it; it is not coming along well enough, and needs some work. I was hoping I'd have finished it for today, but there is still no definitive ending and doesn't quite work. Worse, it seems to be getting bigger, so I am considering whether I might split it and publish it as a themed month instead.
With all that said, I have basically achieved my goal of writing one Friday short story about 44% of the time so far and I've still written a massive amount for all three books in the planned trilogy, which I cannot show. Speaking of not showing, two things that also stopped production were Tumblr going haywire on transphobia and discovering that posting my stories on Tumblr counts as self-publishing - which in turn means I cannot use those stories for competitions and submit them to literary magazines.
The latter especially has been a massive thorn on my sides, and can't lie I have not figured out some way to bridge the gap between the two. I thought that, maybe, by writing Signalis fics, I could then use my original writing to submit it online - but when output is severely lower than expected, what amounts to doubling the workload of what I was doing in the beginning in the year becomes near impossible.
So, in essence, I feel I'm in a production rut; writing itself is coming along, even though it's coming along slower than expected, but when I sit down to write a Friday short, I have to weigh internally if I should go and post this, or withhold it and consider adapting it for literary publication - which would not be as big a problem had I a job so I didn't have to think of earning an income through my writing as hard. The failure of May honestly made me reconsider about this year, and I feel I will refocus now in the remaining summer months on my neglected thesis, in an effort to get it done by September - and if I miss that deadline, finish and graduate by February next year.
As you can tell, I'm overwhelmed lol. Anygay, we forge on - the next short that started production on the 21st is (as of now) titled Empress, and if I can bring it to the finish in its current form, you can expect it next week to kick things off for July. I feel I will focus on writing shorter fiction and spend only two days max on writing a short for the challenge. There are 26 weeks left in the year, so if I could write 15 shorts more, I feel it would be a good output given the current output. Stay tuned regardless, I'll be seeing y'all around!