Went back to the drawing board on Escaping Canaan, and actually discovered several cool things about my opening, and about the story in general. Like, for instance, the fact that I was missing a critically important character. Ah. Good to know, that. Would have been even better to know it a little sooner than now, but hey. Such are the ways of the muse.
Given those encouraging discoveries, it would have been natural and perhaps advisable to continue making notes for the novel, but I didn’t. See, if there is an upside to realizing you’re not yet ready to start a big project, it would be the realization that you’re free to pursue other, smaller projects. I kinda promised a short story to a certain someone out there, and this would be the perfect time to do it. As a bonus, I’ll lay down some new verbiage before the end of the year, and replenish my severely depleted short fiction inventory. So I spent the rest of the week casting about for the story. I think I have most of it now. In fact, if I’m not careful, this thing will explode into its own novel.
That’s the thing about SF and fantasy: you start sketching in a new world, a place that never was, and before long, you get curious about what might exist beyond the borders of the short story framework you’re working in.
But no. If there is to be a novel, it will have to wait its turn. For now, I’m just going to write this short piece. Working title: “The Winter Palace.”
Would be nice to know how a bit more about how it ends, given that it won’t take me long to get there. But hey. Such are the ways of the muse.
Write Club update: Tier one bounce from Buzzy Mag. Response time, a month and a half.
Off to find my ending . . .
