As mentioned previously, I began work on The Clementine yesterday — but as is often the way of such things, that beginning has now been jettisoned. This morning I chucked the whole thing and started over (which wasn’t the end of the world; it was only a few hundred words), and now the new material is actually working pretty well. I think. I might change my mind later. We’ll see.

I don’t have a huge word count to declare, but I’m pretty happy with it all the same. I always have a hard time getting new projects underway because I’m super-picky about how the starter content rolls, since it sets the tone for that which is to follow. Therefore, I often write it and rewrite it several times before becoming comfortable enough to keep moving forward.

But, well, here we go. Here’s today’s progress on my steampunk novella about a runaway-slave- turned-air-pirate and his lost Confederate war dirigible, a mysterious doomsday weapon, and a disenfranchised southern spy who’s gone to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency — now with Bonus! military intrigue and a gentle mad scientist who’s slowly losing his mind:

Project: The Clementine
New Words Written Today: 1637
Present Total Word Count: 1637
Goal: 45,000 words (approx.)





Fiction Things Accomplished: Introduced Captain Croggon Hainey and his skeleton crew aboard a nameless craft, in pursuit of his ship the Free Crow — which was stolen out from under him and renamed the Clementine. Established his general background in brief; opened with an airship chase, hot pursuit, etcetera.

Real Life Things Accomplished: Cleaned kitchen and tried to do laundry but failed (machines were occupied); attempted to brush the cat and failed (she is wiggly, and armed with sharp bits); did a rather inordinate amount of research.

Reason for Stopping: Am exhausted, and getting hungry. Didn’t sleep well last night, and I just don’t feel competent to write more content that I won’t want to throw away in the morning.

Suspected Upcoming Problems: I’ve written point-of-view protagonists who are different from me, before; but this guy is the most different I’ve ever tried to portray. He’s a man; he’s older than me; he’s of another race; he’s a former slave and a current pirate from another century. He’s also a total hoot — which is why I wanted to do a project with him in charge. But this is still a huge stretch for me. I hope I don’t screw it up.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 276,486