Write, edit and publish a new story of fewer than 5,000 words in 14 days.

I’ve been behind a few days on posting, so flash forward and today is the last day of the challenge. Tomorrow is last call for submissions. I’ve never worked with a deadline before, nor have I ever edited with the intent to publish. Writing a new story in a week and spending another week in revision to meet a deadline is all new and wonderfully fascinating.

I’ve finished the 9.0 draft of Siobhan and Dhoul. I reduced the original 5645 words down to 4287, worked through some serious tense inconsistency and removed twenty-five percent of my dialogue tags. The past two weeks have felt like a mini-writing bootcamp, so many lessons crammed into a short period with no time to look over my shoulder. Just charge on ahead.

If I had more time, there are still structural changes I’d make in the story. However, there is valuable experience in putting it down and calling it finished. It’s not perfect but it is the best I can produce under the conditions. Next time will be better and better still after that, until one day… publication.

I’m already thinking about the next project and after going through this challenge, I’m also thinking in terms of due date with revision time built-in. I’ve come away with an entirely different perspective on the writing process.