Writing Contest Results: June 2014

For the month of June 2014, I wrote 7,400 words of fiction for my writing contest. Given how several of my friends who've been involved in various iterations of the contest have dropped out or not been able to participate fully due to real-life obligations, this might be the tail end of the contest.

Still, I got a fair bit done, including some touch-ups to The Thing in the Woods and Battle for the Wastelands. However, the single largest block of work was done on an untitled faux oral history project I've probably mentioned here and there on the blog. Right now it's at 6,118 words, probably 10 percent or so of its eventual total length.

Right now, I'm thinking that'll be my next project. Although I've got the outline of conventional novel trilogy set in this world in the idea file, it's probably a one-shot (Max Brooks hasn't written a narrative novel or novels set in his zombie world, after all) and since it's a collection of interviews in the style of The Good War or World War Z, it won't have things like character arcs and the like. It's more like a short story collection, due to its interview-based format and how I intend to pay homage to "show don't tell" by the use of extended flashback sequences.

In the event I get some agent interest in Battle or Thing, obviously I'll switch over to those projects (either editing or, if they sell, writing sequels). However, writing a second book in a series when you haven't sold the first is generally not a good idea. Once I finish this project, that's a third axis of advance on my goal toward being a professional novelist.