Fiction Writing and ‘Serial Saturdays’

The time? Time to write. Seriously. Take that one word sentence as many ways as you like. Commitment to write, consistently. This month I’ve logged nearly 35,000 words. Yes, most of them made the alphabet refuse pile (ARP). Many were converted to blog postings. One or two made the higher level ‘Hub Pages’ echelon. Now that I presented myself with a twenty-six day writing streak, I feel the moment demands I move on.

I shopped around a couple bloggers today. I like their little corners of the internet world, especially Sonia. I love the colorful setting of her site, but more so, I love the commitment to productive writing as well as a writing outlet she’s created. I use 750words.com to get me started, but most of what I write there is journal style writing to prime the muse.

My favorite seldom written blog, Fiction’s Footsteps, will be where I allow my writing to run loose. I once aspired to write at least one short story a week and to have many stories submitted into the world. I still desire this, but I want to be realistic given my work load, so I’m going to shoot for two a month. I already have one strong story in progress. I will use it for one of my January stories. Since the date is the 27th, I will have to either get it together in these last few days, or write three in the shortened month of February. I will not cut myself any slack on the count – two per month. By December, I want 24 stories written, with at least 20 submitted.

One of the things Sonia does on her blog that I like, is she has special days like “Flash Fridays.” I’m going to get ambitious and create “Serial Saturday” where I add to an ongoing story line each week. Fortunately, again, I’ve already begun. A couple years ago I began writing The Cold Bite of Autumn. I will move the story to my newly created “Serial Saturday” category and add to it each week.

Cheryl Autumn

Just a point of knowledge for newbies to WordPress, I won’t necessarily be bleary-eyed Friday nights desperately adding to my story. This is something I will work a little each day. I will schedule the work to automatically post at 9:00am Saturday mornings, Eastern Standard Time. Anyone who follows the story is encouraged to crack on me if I do not post an update. I don’t guarantee word count, but I will guarantee words.

Wow, putting that up on the screen and sending it out to the world is a bit intimidating. I know how busy my life gets with the publishing company, speaking engagements, blogs, Hub Pages, Facebook, etc. I’m currently averaging around 1300 words a day. Far less than the ambitious 4000 I’m looking for. Please consider following this page, even if you delete my posts. I desire the illusion, at least, that someone is interested in my fiction.

All that said, I’m ready to move on. I must set up that category, move all The Cold Bite of Autumn installments to the new category, and prepare. Since I’ve keyed four blogs today on three hours sleep, my update on the story for tomorrow will likely be brief. Feedback is intensely encouraged. I’ve written and published five books. I’ve been through the critique and re-write process thousands of times. Feel free to give honest feedback. I’ll definitely take the best and throw away the rest!

Hmm. Before I post this, I need to find a pic for Miss Autumn…

Please note: upon browsing the storyline, I noted a couple places with POV changes that need to be noted in some fashion. I will get to this eventually. This story is an unedited first-draft manuscript.