Gauntlets and late nights

The first draft of "Zork Goes Home" is nearly complete; I reckon it'll go to about 6,000 words, which I will then do my very best to cut back to 4,000. It's not my usual ripping-yarn plot-fest. Instead, it's a small-story-hints-at-huge-societal-changes thing, which is not necessarily something I feel all that comfortable writing. I'd rather have tons of plot than tons of spec. But this one completely reverses my usual proportions, which I suppose is a useful exercise. If it ends up selling, once it's all polished up, I will at least know that it doesn't kill a story dead not to have a ton of Victorian-adventure-style cliffhanging. ("But reading that sort of thing is so much funnnnn," whine the throngs who comprise Laura's imaginary public.)

The next piece, "Mertrude, Please," I'm anticipating to be a farce of about 3,000 words. I like writing farce, so that will be pure self-indulgence. A little Christmas present to myself.

The third, "Degredado," is actually starting to look very angsty, even a bit mystical, which, again, is not my usual thang. But if you can't stretch a little, there's no point in keeping on writing stories, I think. I hope to God that every story I write keeps being different.

Three stories. "Ha," one thinks at the start of one's Gauntlet challenge. "I laugh at danger! Ha ha ha! That's me, laughing! At danger!" But it's turning out to be a tad more involved than I'd originally, sanguinely, thought. It's turning out to be something that's forcing me to be a better writer.