I can’t believe it’s the last day of September already! I love the Fall colours and the crispness of the air. I’m just afraid that Winter is Coming soon.
I mentioned last post that I’d written a short story called ‘Red’. I thought I’d talk about ‘how’ I wrote that one. I didn’t have a kernel to work from so I decided to start with three ‘nuggets’.
I asked my friend three questions:
- Who is your favourite author?
- What is your favourite colour?
- Where haven’t you been that you would love to visit?
The answers were:
- Margaret Atwood
- Red
- Ireland
An interesting collection so I went for a run (something I love to do to get my brain working creatively) and put something together. My female character (based on my friend and who appears in some of my other stories) would be at a writing retreat in Cork where Margaret Atwood would be talking. She would keep having misadventures that would prevent her from actually meeting her idol, each one involving her notebook and something red. It was a lot of fun to write and I’m happy with the way it came out. I’ll have to try that type of story again soon.
Since then I’ve done lots of other writing work.
- I finished my dark humour/horror story and submitted it. Just a waiting game now!
- I completed a sword and sorcery tale called ‘Old Bones’ for QuarterReads.com and submitted that one. It’s part of a semi-connected serial but it can stand alone if needed.
- I finished chapter 4 of my Frostbyte novel. It’s moving along. I did a pile of outlining and plotting for the first half of the book. Just working through some character arc’s now.
- I wrote the initial draft of another sword and sorcery tale called ‘The Game’. It’s connected to ‘Old Bones’ and is part of my Stars and Stones world.
- I’m still working on a race report for the Lost Soul ultra-marathon.
- I wrote the first draft of my superhero story (for another submission). I like it but it’s going to need a TON of work to make it great.
- I wrote a really rough outline for a science fiction/horror story called ’Catacombs’ about space marines and archaeologists. It came to me in a dream. A very nasty dream…
- I have an outline for another ‘true tale’ from my sorry youth. This one is about model rocketry, smoke bombs, cannons and better living through chemistry.
Till next time! Take care.
//
Robert Bose 