FMWriters is traveling the web via the Merry Go Round Blog Tour. Site members have grouped together to write monthly on themed topics and turn the blog tour concept on its head: we’re not the ones touring: you are, as you read one writer’s perspective after another. This is my contribution to the Merry Go Round Tour. Enjoy your ride. ~ Dawn
Writing projects are like chocolate cookies fresh from the oven: you can’t have just one, and you certainly don’t just bake one. I’ve got a novel going, the one I’ve been working with on and off since last spring. It’s going well, especially after workshop feedback. The secondary projects are a handful of short stories in various phases of existence. One idea is for a contest in my writer’s group (in research phase), another idea is based on a dream I’ve had (worldbuilding phase – though I’m thinking this one is going to be a novella based on research), and yet another idea based off of something that two people in a chat room said to me combined with something my father-in-law threw at me on vacation. But this month is special when it comes to short stories. For members of http://www.fmwriters.com, it’s May Story A Day (SAD).
May SAD has been an annual event in my life since I joined FM writers. We pull writing prompts from our choice of source (I prefer the Seventh Sanctum elements) and try to draft a story. I’ve managed anywhere from 1 – 10 stories each May. Last year I generated a bunch of outlines, but didn’t yet write the stories due to a family situation. This year, I’m going for ten and hoping for more.
My system gives me three days to write a story, though the best stories come together in the first day to completion. The idea is on day one to pull the prompt, figure out plot, character and world. Once the outline comes together, I can bang out the first draft in two to three writing sessions. This takes two to three days because of the job and family, etc.
So far, I’ve got one story done, and I’m working on the outline to my second story.
This challenge always gives me a jump in progress, whether I’m counting the number of stories in my arsenal, or progressing my skills further.
Hope your May is great!
Dawn
Today’s post was inspired by Forward Motion’s Merry-Go-Round topic, “Projects Progress”. If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and read about their ideas, then check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. Next up is Raven on the 7th.
DAWN BONANNO 
The exception to “can’t have just one” is clearly those humongous cookies that fill an entire cookie sheet (which, of course, are analogous to long-running epic fantasies where each volume is hundreds of pages and takes years to come out). 😉
Sounds like an awesome system you have! Here’s hoping you get more than your planned 10 this year!
Congrats on the stories already finished! I hope you get more than 10 stories this May.
Thanks!! I’m enjoying myself. 2.5 stories so far. The current one should be done tonight or tomorrow. If I can fit a few flash ideas in, I’m golden. 😀
Thanks for visiting!
It can be exhilarating to have a few projects going at once (and a great way to thwart writer’s block), but sometimes I feel like “butter scraped over too much bread” — to quote Bilbo. Keep up the good work, and way to go on meeting & beating your May W1S1 goals!