A day to write

Today was my chance to get some new words down, so, of course, I started slow. Didn’t get up until after six, tended morning chores, then went through a couple forms of social media. I saved blog reading for this afternoon.

Next, I had a couple of critiques to address. I made a big submission this time, so it took a while to get through them. My story is much improved thanks to these.

After that, it was time to write. My crew landed in a new country (to them) to search for some wayward crew members. One was fairly easy to find, and while the other one was, too, they had to prevent a hanging to do it.

I tend to shorten pieces up, and lately I’ve been resisting this. I find my work is improved by giving a bit more to some of these scenes. It helps increase the word count, but it also eliminates white-room syndrome.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the outcome. They found the people they needed to find, it turned into a fun adventure with a wagon racing through town, and they may have caused an international incident. I’ll have to remember that idea for later in the story.

As a bonus, they may have flicked the nose of the deeper seeded bad guys while doing all this. I have some neat obstacles in place if I choose to go there. I probably will, but then I wind up writing myself into a corner. It can be fun coming up with a creative way of saving everyone from their own misdeeds.

After all of this, I’m due for a scene of James overthinking everything. He tends to do that, and it’s a reasonable way to catch a breath during a pirate adventure. I’ve already introduced a new fantasy creature, but there need to be more of them. It might be too soon to go down that path.

Lanternfish also gained some unexpected new crew members. It’s probably a good thing I have to go back to work. I need time to figure out what to do with them. One is an idiot who thinks it’s a good idea to hit on Serang. Then there are a couple of cons who market fake witchcraft. There has to be something fun to play off of the actual witch doctor who serves as the ship surgeon.

My long change is upon me, and I won’t get another flex day for two weeks. This might not be a bad thing right now.

I surprised myself with the late start, and all the peripheral projects today. My word count is 3600 on the day. I didn’t expect to get 500, but it was just clicking well.

For the next couple weeks, I’ll be daydreaming about new sea monsters, new pirate personalities, and con men. Underneath it all is the thought of an international incident and irritating the cult that is even more scary than warring monarchs.