1. I haven't done much with #WIP500 since Sunday or so, which is one reason that I'm writing this blog when I don't have much reason to do so.
2. Yesterday's 30 Words 30 Days 30 Stories entry was a drawing (shared under the "30-word stories" tab, along with today's story). So even without meeting the 500-word daily goal, I'm sticking to one creative resolution, even if it is just for the month of January!
3. I have an idea for a new project; henceforth known as the current project. I know my "current project" should be finishing the NaNoWriMo story, or even working on the Odic Touch 2, but when I get an idea that I feel passionate about, I MUST get started on it right away, so... I'm setting those stories aside for now.
The current project involves a collage of sorts. I've been collecting used writer-centric mass market paperbacks in the horror genre; each of them is either about a writer or told from a first-person narrator’s account. There’s a few that aren’t... but I want to read them to find out if there’s an element I can use with my story.
As you probably know, there is a LOT of writer-centric horror stories written by Stephen King, and he’s definitely on my list, though I’m not sure how he’d feel about this project. (I could soon find out, though I don’t want to jinx that by saying too much about it.) In addition to King, I’ve got raggedy MMPBs by VC Andrews, Mario Acevedo, Ray Bradbury, Jim Davis (Garfield), Marvel Comics and Mad magazine (it may be difficult to receive permission to use those), Charlaine Harris, Dean Koontz (another one for which permission may be hard to come by, as I believe there is no real Dean Koontz, just a name for multiple writers), Ryan Mecum (Vampire Haiku), Michael Crichton (considering his estate allowed another author to finish Micro, receiving permission may be possible), John Saul, Robert McCammon, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, Graham Masterton, Anne Rivers Siddons, and Douglass Clegg.
Some of them I’ve already read, and I plan to reread a few, but I’ll save those until I’m done with the “new-to-me” books. So, first I’ll read most of the ones I’ve never read, which means Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, Crichton’s Travels (there are a couple chapters about paranormal occurrences), Koontz’s Strangers and Tick Tock, and the books I have by Straub, Masterton, Clegg, McCammon (2), Campbell, and Acevedo, plus I have to finish King's Danse Macabre and Bradbury’s Death is a Lonely Business. That's a total of 13 that I have never read and plan to read; I won’t read the Andrews or Siddons, and I can’t read the Harris because the puppy ate the ending. (Arrgr, Eater of Words!)
13 books is a huge undertaking for me, as slowly as I read... but I’ll try! Fortunately, some of them are short story collections (so I don’t have to read every story), and one of them is a comic collection, which won’t take long. (I’ve already read Mad Monstrosities and Garfield’s Big Fat Scary Joke Book.)
I'm planning to start writing the story, in a journal perhaps, this week. Once I find out what I need to do about the legal standpoint of this new project, I can start using the pages from the books... but first I have to read those 13 books. I'm making progress in the Bradbury one, and I've already started the comic, so... that'll soon bring me down to 11. I'll take another look inside the 11 others and see if there's any space for my planned additions... if not, I'll have to strike them from the plans. hehe I've definitely got my work cut out for me!