Everyone goes to Hell is finally done... ish

So I finally got a first draft out for Everyone Goes to Hell. 

Those last 2K words were a pain to get through, and I probably ended up writing and deleting about twice as much as what ended up making the first cut, but it's done. 

Final word tally is almost 19K words. Yeesh. So much for the 17K limit. I'm still planning on sending it to WoF, and I had already casually asked the organizers if they accepted stories that were just a tad over. I have an email saying that "if it's awesome, it doesn't matter if it's a bit over" so I'm definitely going for it and cross my fingers. 

Man, this feels like a huge weight off my chest. All this time without writing, it really felt good to get back in the saddle, so to speak.

It's funny because I call it my first draft, but it's really my second. I finished the first draft yesterday and read it all in one sitting while the wife and little one were asleep. I found a TON of errors in continuity (mostly) that I couldn't let stand, so I fixed most of them (I hope) today. 

It's already on the Critters queue, for the end of May. Hopefully I get good feedback and not a lot to change, since WoF cut-off this quarter is June 30th.

Of course, while I wait, I'm going to work on something else. I'm torn between picking up where I left off with the writing prompts, or going over the previous 2 stories I had on Critters, To Return and The Faithful. I had some awesome feedback and thoughts on both that made me want to work on them, but I hesitate. I kind of want to do something different. 

I should probably take into account that I might not fix everything that people find broken in EGtH in time, so I should maybe just focus on getting The Faithful up to snuff. That one got a whopping 28 critiques, compared to the 8 or so I had for To Return, so I kind of got a better feel of how I could fix it. But then again, I also re-read my fantasy novel WIP and I remembered that the sixth chapter could work as a stand-alone story, with some tweaks. 

Aaaaaaargh!

I don't want to miss out submitting to WoF, just because it feels good to know that some professionals are looking at my work, even if they don't give feedback. It's a placebo, of sorts. Or whatever you want to call it. 

Eh.. it's midnight here and I have a 5 am phone call for my actual, paying job so... I'll just go spend the next 30 min on Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes before falling asleep. 

- Chair! 
Ciro IzarraComment