Creativity is fickle, coming and going without rhyme or reason. This month, try as I might, I had a deficit of inspiration, as if my muse took a vacation without telling me. Still, I found ways around this.

Short Stories

Between now and September, I hope to submit at least one story a month. I’ve found five anthologies that fit the bill. As more opportunities present themselves, I may submit more.

For May, I chose an anthology of “tragic queer horror”. This comes from a larger publisher with not too many spots available. My chances are beyond slim. Still, the characters instantly formed in my mind, and I knew I had to tell their story.

The first 3/4’s of the story went well. I felt my characters develop and the story pretty much wrote itself. That is, until I got to the conclusion. It was a mess. Once I finished, I went over the manuscript, hoping to find a better way to end it. No luck. The next two days I brainstormed the heck out of it. Still nothing.

I’ve put the story on the back burner, hoping that the ending will come to me. I’ve had those bursts of revelation in the past and I hope I’ll get one again. I really do love most of the story.

Update: Stories From the Infinite City

I completed my edits for the second draft of my weird fiction collection. As I said last month, it’s not as bad as I thought. It still needs TONS of work, but I think it’s salvageable. A couple stories, though, will require total overhauls.

Early on, when I was writing the collection, I was losing momentum. The only way I could get it done was to push myself, writing as fast as I could. As I mentioned a couple months ago, I had one day of 4,500 words. But when I rush, my characters suffer.

I’m currently in the process of developing characters that have already been written. It’s a difficult task to say the least and it’s taking the wind out of my sails. I’m currently in procrastination mode.

The Godconstruct

In the last writing update, I mentioned submitting a flash fiction piece (titled “The Godconstruct”) to a dark sci-fi anthology. I was far more optimistic about this story than usual, which may have been my downfall. I received a rejection several days ago.

I’m used to rejections by now, but compound it with my struggles above and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’ve been taking it easy since then, letting my batteries recharge.

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This will be my fourth blog post this month. I’ve remembered how much I enjoyed writing here. Not to mention that it’s a perfect way to procrastinate. Back in the day, I wrote a post a week. While I might not do that just yet, I hope to devote more time to this site.

See you soon!

Tchau,

Zé