For those who were wondering, I am still working on this month’s story, despite the fact that I’ll need to invent a time machine to fit in all the other stuff I need to do before the end of the month besides finishing it.

This tale got seriously derailed over the weekend, when I realised one of the central ideas wasn’t going to work. However, a solution presented itself at work today and I’ve managed to hack about what I had done already and add some more to it. I’m now fairly confident I can get a working story completed with the framework I’ve got, but it’s definitely not going to be pretty. Still, first drafts and all that, ‘finish what you start’ and so on. There’s a line from where I am now to the ending I had in mind, which is a good thing. Walking that line with words over the next eight days is going to be a challenge, though!

2,103 / 7,500 (28.0%)

Oh, and in reply to Sterling’s comment on the last progress report - I have no idea what I’ll do with it once it’s done. It’d be nice to think I’ll be confident enough in it to try sending it out for publication, but I think it’ll want a fair bit of polish before I’m willing to consider that. Maybe I’ll try one of those online story workshops to get some critique - if anyone reading can recommend one, I’d be very grateful.

In the meantime, all focus is on getting the bugger finished to deadline. That is my spur here - I’ve never missed a deadline for anything I’ve had published, as far as essays and reviews go, and so I’m damned if I’ll ruin my record and let myself break a deadline I’ve set for myself … [clenches fist determinedly]