January was a bad first month for 2010 -- at least emotionally. Without getting too sappy and divulging too much, I had a relative pass away and my dad went into the hospital. I don't deal well with tragedy sometimes, and this time was worse than usual. However, I feel like I've come back with a vengeanace, and I'm working hard to get back into the swing of things with my writing, which fortunately has been easy because of the significant downtime I get at work.
So I've been working on a few short stories that take place in a world I create two years ago for a NaNo. While the NaNo was not a success (I did complete 28k on it, but it wasn't very coherent or cohesive), I believe that the world I built for the story was memorable, and I've been trying as hard as I could to come back to it, but I've just not had the opportunity or spark of "what to write" until now. I also feel that my knowledge and understanding of the genre has expanded immensely in the last four months, having read three steampunk novels and two full collections of short stories (and I just started a new novel today). So as I learn, I have begun to understand my own take on the genre, as well as how to blend it with my unique style and method of storytelling.
I have also begun to incorportate a very loose collection of stories I started years but never completed. I think that the stories I began to tell within them is very much a part of this world -- perhaps even the promulgator of this particular incarnation -- and things are going along nicely. Over the course of four days writing only at work I pumped out 5000 words on one story, and I've already started a second one, both of which I'm pleased with after the first draft.
Planning for WriteCamp 2 (or WriteCamp '10, we haven't decided) began this past week. While part of me has become a little disallusioned with the writing community in Milwaukee, I am eager to get this event squared away in order to produce something as memorable as the first one. I will, no doubt, update as often as I can regarding the status of said event, as well as my own increased writing schedule.
And that's all I have to say about that.
