Back to “Felix”

I got back to work on “Felix” this week. It is the story of two astronauts on Mars and their search for a robot rover that got lost many years earlier.

I’d left it nearly two months. I added almost 2,000 words this week. I also deleted almost 600 words. The story is now about 5,300 words long. I think the first draft will end up about 7,000 words, so I’m about 80% done. That is shorter than I wanted. Possibly, when I rewrite, I can enhance it and make it longer.

I adopted an approach that H. P. Lovecraft recommended. In the final story, I will tell much of the story in flashback. What H. P. suggested was that you write the story in chronological order, and then restructure it to the final order later.

So far, I think that approach has worked well for me. I do see some problems that will come up later. I wrote as if the final version would still be in chronological order. At the start I reveal some introductory information that needs to be at the start of the final story, but in this draft, the section that will be first, comes later in the story. It shouldn’t be too difficult to fix, but I need to remember I’ll need to deal with it.

I got another rejection for “Pete’s Plan” this week. I was a disappointed. I started with the higher paying SF magazines, so the competition would be stiffer. I may do better with some of the other ones. 

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog