Cutting it Fine: Reflections on "A Story Every Day" So Far (August Edition)

I loved writing in August. The results might have been good, or not, but I enjoyed getting them out. I count that as a win by itself.

I've been posting after 11PM way too often though!

The Nuts & Bolts

• As of 31st August, it's 244 days in to the yearlong Story Every Day challenge, which started on 1st January. Exactly two thirds of the way there!
• My word count for August (drumroll please, because this is bloody impressive in my opinion): 20,508! That includes all my micros, (sans authors notes), my look back at July, my dollar challenge post, several challenge entries (both official and unofficial), reflections on the nonet challenge, musings on the Exclusive Stories feature, and some wanky poetry. (I have not counted micros that I rewrote for the Epic Beginnings challenge, because they were quite similar to my originals.)
• Stats: My monthly peak at my stats showed that my reads were up.
• Reads: 13k and change! Thank you everyone for your support.
• My most-read, most-liked piece in August was my dollar challenge piece. My most-read, most-liked micro was Bend in the Road.
• Achievements: Two Top stories in August: #233 Bend in the Road and #235 Poison Gown. I also placed in the nonet challenge, getting runner up with burn.

This Month I 'Ave Mostly Bin Writin'...

...about doppelgangers: I enjoyed this topic and I had to stop myself writing a story about it every bloody day! I'm Not Crazy, and Smarter, Not Harder.

...about toxic mothers: in One For My Blog and Beauty and the Beast.

...about death: How many time did I kill someone off last month? In July, it was 13 times. In August: about 11, I think. I wrote specifically about suicide (content warning and spoiler alert) in Bend in the Road and All About The Ride.

about relationships: Ramper Pour Toujours, and Soupçon et Jalousie (these two go together) and I Didn't Mean It.

about time travel: Wouldn't such an ability make you basically a psychopath? No consequence, right? I explored this in Just Go Back.

about fantastical creatures: A Day in the Life of a Cavalry Black

Horror/thriller: I went full Hitchcock with The Gulls. I also wrote a couple of stories about a haunted/creepy/otherwise effed up dollhouse: Can't Beat the House, and The Dollhouse

Also...

Series: The shaggy dog saga continues with Love Me, Love My Dog, and I did another installment of The Hunt.

Wanky poems: I wrote nine!

Historical fiction: Faux Pas

Twisted fairytale: Beware of Women in Athleisure Wear.

Reflection

I think my favourite story this month was The Plank. I was really pleased with the idea, and happy with how it turned out.

I enjoyed writing The Dollhouse a lot, even though I creeped myself out a bit when I wrote it. I am almost certain I'll write about that little house again. The characters were very real to me, and that's when I like it best. That's when it's easiest to breathe life into them, and then the story plops out like shelling peas. It's a doddle; all I have to do is watch what they do and write it down. If anything, sometimes it's hard to write fast enough to keep up. This is when writing is most interesting, and usually fun as well. If it's not, well, the air of madness pouring off me, my haystack hair sticking out in all directions and my fingers practically leaving a trail of smoke across the keys... That's a kind of interesting, isn't it?

I also loved Famished, same reason really. It was fun, and I don't often do that journal entry style.

What I Have Learned

Start writing earlier in the day. Sometime stories pour out in ten minutes, a quick prune, and hey presto! As a night-owl, often I'm still wide awake and raring to go at 11PM. But I can't rely on either of those things.

Goals

Let's have a look at how I did with my goals for August:

• Do more reading: I caught up with reads, and Kindle shows you your daily reading streak, which, as you can imagine, is a strong motivator for me!
• Better titles: I think I smashed this one. What do you think?
• Enter more challenges: Some challenges I've ignored completely, but I made fourteen entries into challenges, not counting unofficial ones. I call that success.
• Reviews, Recipe, Round Up: Oops on all counts. Speaking of "counts", can you imagine my word count if I'd succeeded?? On the upside, I didn't submit to Filth either. (Phew!)
• More horror: Done! I think!
• More crimefic: I had a go at it for the Overboard challenge with The Guest.
• Fewer stories in the first person: Twenty in July. In August: fourteen. That's definitely better... right?

Next month:

Reciprocating as many reads as possible is a given. Aside from that:

• A movie review, book review, a recipe and a round up
• Keep up with the daily reading ("proper" reading, on top of reading here).
• Not enter "more" challenges, so much as definitely seize any that inspire me and not let them pass me by
• At least one longer piece of fiction (1-3k words, ish)
• Reflections on the challenges I entered
• The big one: post before 11PM as often as possible

Here's to another month of (possibly slightly less maniacal) scribbling!

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Thank you for reading!