In Lieu of the 3-Day Novel

Normally, this is the week I'd get ready for the 3-Day Novel Contest.

But not this year.

For one thing, you have to pay for it.  Ouch.

Second, I've found that having it Labor Day weekend makes some sort of sense... except that it's usually the same weekend as the start of college football.  And my devotions to USF, UF (and my family's devotions to the same as well as Mom's War Eagle roots) seem to take a full day out of my attempts to write.  This year, for example, I may have to babysit my nephews while my twin brother and his wife head up to Gainesville for the UF home opener, and while Mom & Dad are off at Selmon's for the Auburn watch party.

Third, that despite all my efforts and planning and outlining... well, what I come up with tends not to be well-written, well-organized... and nearly everything I've pounded out basically are works I've never re-visited.

So this year, I'm swearing off the 3-Day.

Instead, I'm doing the 4-Day Whatever-The-Hell-I-Write Self-Imposition.

The plan is to write something on each day of the weekend - Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday - that do not necessarily have to be novels.  I do, after all, have an interest in writing short stories, and I think my short story efforts can be done within a day.

Given the epublishing limits or lack thereof - that I can basically write a short story however long I want, well into novella size if need be - I could well get at least ONE thing done over this weekend that's publish-worthy.

Some of the ideas up for work are a story idea I've had for awhile about a wacky road trip to Vegas (the trickiest part is writing the whole thing in present tense, which is harder than you think); a humor story about teens planning a Skip Day; another story in my superhero 'verse; an unemployed insomniac getting wrapped up in an unusual criminal conspiracy; and perhaps revisiting an old story in my files that needs a rewrite.

So there goes, here goes, it will go, it may have went.  Shush, I'm working on tenses...