Not a lot of new words, but several new ideas. 

Via Stonetable I found this post on the use of log lines in fiction.  Seemed like a great idea, so I thought I'd give it a shot on the current work in progress.  I came up with a couple of really dreadful log lines, but one of them sent me off in a new direction, and just in time.  I am at 1439 words on this one.  As usual there is far more dialogue than narrative.  It's yet another short story that seems to want to be a comic book script.

Which brings me to an idea I had last week as I was trying to plan out the next few months of writing projects. 

I am going to continue doing the incessant rounds of submission and rejection with the print and online markets.  That's probably not sounding like a revelation to anyone but me — see, I was really thinking of dropping that whole cycle and just going straight to Creative Commons and publishing on a web site.  The paradigm is shifting, and I really do want to be a part of that. 

But.

There's a part of me that says that I'd be 'giving up' the original dream of being published by someone else, of getting that validation, and if I'm extremely lucky, a paycheck. 

So I think I've come up with a compromise: adaptation.

I can't put unpublished work on the web, because that's 'publication' and publishers will not accept it unless they accept reprints.  Okay.  But there is no reason I couldn't post adaptations or derivative work from those unpublished manuscripts.  What I'm getting at is that if my schedule allows it, what I'd like to do is adapt the short stories as comics scripts, and post those on the web under Creative Commons.

What excites me most about the idea is that if I do that, artists can then feel free to draw to those scripts.  I'd be giving something to the community.  Paying into the dream, playing a real part in building that share-alike world that Patrick and I talk about and that others (including him) are working so hard to create. 

So.  That's what I'm thinking about.

The narrative fiction remains the priority though.  I have developed yet another mind-game sort of schedule for myself, and the scripting only happens if I meet my narrative goals.