Writing On

I am doing well on the words part of my challenge. I have built up a streak and I'm sticking to it. I'm nowhere near the production I wanted so far, but I've gotten a lot farther on the old, unfinished story than I thought I would. I thought it would end quickly after the place I had initially stopped, but it just keeps rolling along. What I thought was going to be the ending wasn't the ending after all. And I feel like I'm almost too committed to finishing it to start on another story.

I do want to start another story, even if it's another short one. Not only will that improve my production overall, but it can help me keep moving forward with the other story. I like being able to play with whichever one I feel best about on any given day, rather than having only one work in progress that I must produce 500 words for. And, I also like being able to settle into a different character for a change of pace. The differences help remind me who I'm writing and how they would think and speak.

My accountability goal is also going well. I'm posting once for every night I spend at home, with the nights I'm not at home recorded and posted with the first night back. That's not a problem at all, except for that one night that I thought I'd hit publish but it didn't acknowledge the button push and I had to backdate it. Still, that was a software issue. I had the post ready and every intention to publish the night of.

I told someone at work the other day that I'm writing fiction. This person only knew that I was writing non-fiction, specifically, the backpacking books. They were quite eager to read my stories, being, as they said, an avid and nonjudgmental reader. On the one hand, having another person to read through what I've written could be quite helpful. On the other hand, I have to work with this person and I'd hate for them to lose esteem for me based on either subject matter or perceived skill. I still lack confidence about my fiction, partly because I've never sold anything.

So I will keep writing, keep reading, keep practicing and get better. But I don't know if it will ever be any easier to point acquaintances to my writing with the expectation that they could, if they like the style, enjoy it.