Choices, Choices

I haven't gone through all my stories yet, but so far it looks like I haven't killed that many people. Or maybe I'm just growing numb to all the murder. By my estimation, there were 13 deaths in The Long Road's 25,000 or so words. And a lot of that was just one guy. And yeah, that's a lot, but most of the others are one, maybe two deaths. A lot have none at all!

I'll get back to you when I actually find the time to reread all the stories and get a final body count.

In the meantime, I'm probably trying not to kill anyone. I'm still not sure what my next project is, if I'm trying to go all literary and get locally published, or what.

I have a few stories that I've put some previous effort into that I could return to. I have a vague space story that I abandoned because the plot I had was boring. I have a short story about an airship continually outrunning sunset that really deserves a second draft. I have "My Soul to Take," which is kind of the pet project of this blog, that I think could be perfected on the third go-round. I'm pretty happy with that one as-is, but it needs some edges smoothed and wrinkles ironed. And of course, I have a half-dozen or so novels with a plethora of plot holes that need paving over.

Or I could start something completely new. I always have a bazillion story prompts saved up, though none of them are jumping out at me right now. You can't force these things. If I try to write a story I'm not interested in, I'm going to hate the whole process. That's no fun.

I'm considering putting up another poll for genres, but I don't know. I didn't get a lot of responses last time. I think only 2 or 3 people actually voted. Maybe I only have 2 or 3 readers. The other thing about having a poll with genres I've never done before, is that, well, I've never done them and I don't necessarily know anything about them. Like romance. I don't get romance. I know it has its own set of rules and things that should or should not happen, but I think I'd need to read a lot more romance to really understand that, and that's not really something I'm interested in doing.

The takeaway from all this is that I need to write something, because I'm not currently writing something, but I have no idea what something I should write. It's incredibly freeing, not being tied down like this, but also frustrating, because I want a new project to work on.

I'll see you Tuesday.