write a collection of short stories

I spent last week on the developmental edit, and it went faster than I thought, so I got started on the next draft. My plan is to write/edit at least 800 words a day, and to finish by April 18 (when I leave for the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing).

“Developmental edit” is my term for messing around with the plot and structure of the novella. I need to figure out which scenes to keep, and how to arrange them. The challenge is getting the two separate drafts (one for each character) to mesh and interweave.

I also need to do more notes on the setting and other characters.

I estimate I’ll need two weeks to do this work.

By writing for half an hour every day in January, I finished the second character’s draft, all 23,631 words of it!

Gosh, I would be thrilled just to have this book done and not to be worrying about it. But concrete incentives seem to help, so … WHEN I finish I will buy or make a Tiffany stained glass lamp for my desk, which I’ve always wanted.

I wrote an initial draft for this novella during National Novel Writing Month, 2003. Last November, I pulled it out to begin editing it. I decided to add another point-of-view character, so my next task is to add to that initial draft.

So far I have three stories completed for the collection I’m working on. I plan to finish three more stories and a novella.