week eight (feb 19 - 25)

Applied ass to chair this week and quelle surprise I made some progress!

In the Cage of Ghosts is finally underway. I can see it struggling to come in under the three thousand word mark, but I will allow a little room either way. Very pleased with it so far. Potentially, should this one turn out a winner, it could change my whole approach to writing short fiction…

Chapter Six of The Ballerina, the Boy, and The Thing in the Water continues to move slowly towards completion. It has taken several months—on and off—to write its 2880 words, and I'm not even sure if it will survive the final cut. Why? Because it is author intrusion all the way. Let me explain briefly…

There are two main plot threads in this novel. The first is set in The Eighties and follows the story of a young girl, Ella Bradburn. The second is set in The Noughties and follows the story of the man who is writing Ella's story, one Thomas Crouch. The obvious problem is this: once the reader encounters Mr Crouch, will he or she be able to return to Ella's story "unharmed", i.e., will they be able to continue and still feel as involved in the story? Or will they see it—courtesy of me heavily underlining it—as just that, a story? It's fucking with the whole suspension of disbelief thing, and that's usually a big no-no. But I feel it could work here for reasons I won't go into just yet. Only time will tell if the two can coexist, I suppose. Or if one of them (Mr Crouch) has to go…

STATS:
2 submissions: Bound Off, Underground Voices
1 rejection: Ninth Letter

Currently reading: Duma Key by Stephen King, Dead Sea by Brian Keene
Recently watched: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (**1/2), Sicko (***1/2), Tremors (****1/2)