So I’m plugging away, writing Jeff’s three stories at Camp Nanowrimo. The first one is almost done, but I’m also still getting critiques for Monsters of Pittsburgh.  And right now, I’m at the most frustrating part of the editing process: Explaining world mechanics and characters quirks  to new readers, while not boring the pants off old readers.

Even worse, I write short stories. Novelists have to do this once a year or so. I’ve done it fourteen times in the last year.

And now I’m getting feedback on the newest, rawest stories… from new readers.

So I not only need to refine and redefine, I also have to make sure that I’m not recycling old explanations. Nothing worse than picking up a book in a series and knowing that the author just repasted four paragraphs from book three.

Seriously, I may move to one shot stories.