Writerly resolutions, May status

I made significant progress on the novel (the graph at the right shows the progression of my word count over the month). A first draft of chapter 11 is done and I’m nearly finished with the rewrite of the chapter. I think that this might be a chapter that can stand on its own as a short story, although it’s a bit on the long side (the first draft was 7,333 words). There are some obvious cuts that can be made, but I don’t think I can get it under 6K without damaging the narrative.

Speaking of short stories, revision of the long story is finished and it went into submission along with a piece I workshopped this month. I’m heavy on revisions for another story which got a ground-up rewrite which made for a better story, I think. Progress on the other story I have in the works is slow but steady. I don’t really know where the story is going so that makes it a little challenging to write and I suspect at least half of what will be in the current draft will end up getting tossed, but with any luck the remaining half will be decent enough to get published.

I also received my contributor’s copy of Steam Ticket with my short short, “Persistence of Memory” in it. Always nice to get the occasional reminder that not everything I write is crap.