To Blog or Not to Blog?

For those curious as to why The Quill has been sporadic and silent of late, I am writing this post to provide you the answer.

Back in February of this year, I was made aware of a rather significant short story competition which would be taking place in April.  For those unaware, short stories and novellas are the only medium that I work in, and may possibly ever work in.  The story lengths involved are the ones I feel most confident in producing work for.  Perhaps in time I grow significantly enough as an author where that no longer becomes necessary.

At this time, in this place, and with regards to this contest, I knew I had to get an entry going.  So I began generating a story here on The Quill.  That’s a huge part of the reason why I have it; a chance to keep myself publicly accountable as well as invite feedback from readers.  After a few weeks of consistent posting, I had managed to produce enough to meek the requirements for the story (for the record, it has to be under 8k words).  However, my story ended up being 12,000 words long, half-again more than would be acceptable.

I write slow, but I edit even slower.  It’s also part of the reason why I stay in shorter works of fiction.  Editing this story, on top of the usual issues I face with slower editing, has also involved more significant re-writes than I anticipated.  Yes, I was able to use my posts here as a way to keep the story moving forward, but that also meant that I had a lot of dead ends and empty plot lines to correct.  My story also lacked consistent framing and structure, sometimes switching tones between scenes, or even mid-scene.  While occasional shifts in tone allow for a writer’s own voice to be heard, too many done too frequently in a short story is a real issue.

In preparing this story for the contest I will be submitting it to, I was forced to rewrite the whole affair.  I have spent almost forty hours editing the story to its current iteration, and that’s not including the final pass edits, the touch ups, and whatever re-writes my team of beta readers finds necessary. I’m not perfect, and I’m definitely not an exceptional writer.  I am where am I am and who I am because I have used effort and tons of feedback and then more effort.

I have a limited amount of time during the week.  I have a new job which continues to provide me long term options for stability.  I need to be here.  To do my job well (because it involves an enormous amount of mental agility) I must make sure that I take care of my body.  I have to get enough sleep.  I’m also in the middle of a long-term diet, now down close to 40 pounds.  Not to mention I have a D&D campaign for the first time in FOREVER (Three years or thereabouts) and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.  Plus, my computer finally bit the dust last week and I lost everything which was on it.

None of these are excuses.  None of these should be taken as proof positive that The Quill will forever be the first to get the ax whenever things get hard.  However, at this time, in this place, with what I have to deal with and the amount of time at my disposal, limiting my posts was the best way to make sure I kept the professional side of my work moving forward.  I will always be the captain of The Quill, but I’d like it to be my full time job instead of limiting it to a weekend passion project.

So, from me and the rest of us at The Quill (still just me), thank you again for your patience.

Sincerely,

The Unsheathed Quill