A Week of Writing: 4/23/18 to 4/29/18
On more week of writing, editing, and submitting in the books.
Getting close to done(ish) on at least one big project.
The Novel
Solid production on the novel for the week, and I passed 80,000 words total. I’m at the climax of the story, and I’m looking at another 10,000 words to wrap up the first draft. I think 90,000 is a solid length for a horror novel, though it’ll likely boil down to 85,000 or so after my first pass and possibly a bit more once my beta readers are done chewing on it. Here’s how the week went.
| Date | Day | Words Written |
| 4/23/2018 | Monday | 2515 |
| 4/24/2018 | Tuesday | 2529 |
| 4/25/2018 | Wednesday | 0 |
| 4/26/2018 | Thursday | 2531 |
| 4/27/2018 | Friday | 0 |
| 4/28/2018 | Saturday | 0 |
| 4/29/2018 | Sunday | 1262 |
That’s another 8,837 words. Again, I’d have liked 10,000, but so close to the end I’m writing slower and taking more time to think certain plot points through. I hope next week’s update will be that I’ve finished the first draft.
Short Stories
Last week I tinkered with a bunch of trunk stories and outlined a sci-fi story, but I didn’t finish anything new. That’ll be apparent in my submission numbers. My focus has been on the novel and a few other projects, so less time for short stories.
Submissions
Only one submission this week, a trunk story I spruced up and sent out.
- Submissions Sent: 1
- Rejections: 1
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 0
Technically, I only received one rejection last week, but I got three this morning, so it feels like a lot more. Anyway, I’ll account for this morning’s rejections in next week’s update. 🙂
The Blog
I’ve been pretty steady with updating the blog three times a week, and as a result my traffic and followers have increased. Here’s last week’s trio.
4/23/18: A Week of Writing: 4/16/18 to 4/22/18
Pretty self-explanatory, right?
4/25/18: A Day in the Life of a First Draft
One of my goofier posts in a while, I relate what my typical writing day looks like, hour by hour.
4/27/18: Back to Basics: More Cover Letter Components
A follow up to my post about constructing a basic cover letter. This one details some of the additional elements publishers sometimes ask for in a cover letter.
Goals
Finish. The. Novel.
Story Spotlight
This week it’s a story from one of my favorite peddlers of flash fiction, The Molotov Cocktail. The following story, “Masks,” took third place in their FlashFear contest.
Read “Masks“
And that was my week. How was yours?
3 Comments on “A Week of Writing: 4/23/18 to 4/29/18”
Leave a Reply to Christopher Iacono Cancel reply
Effectively Wild – A Baseball Horror Story
Night Walk & Other Dark Paths
Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
Congrats on making third place in the Molotov Cocktail contest.
As far as myself, I have two prose pieces (a fiction and nonfiction) that are *this close* to sending out.
Speaking of submissions, since last week, I’ve sent out three more, but I’ve also received two rejections.
I’ve written drafts for 28 poems for the month of April (more about that in tomorrow’s blog post). I have one or two ready to send out, but the rest all need work. They’re going to have to wait, though, because I decided I’m going to do Story a Day in May this year. I’ve never done it before, so it could be quite an interesting experience.
I also received two rejections this morning. Did the editors spend the weekend working through their slush piles, or did they see their backlog and decide to delete everything to start from scratch? To be fair, one editor included a personal note after the form rejection, so I’ll include him in the former category.
Sorry to hear it. Those multiple rejection days are tough.