You never forget how to ride a bicycle, but if you haven’t done it lately, you still move stiffly

I was depressed to realize this week that in the press of all my assignments, I didn’t write any of my own fiction in the past three weeks. I will not repeat that mistake (what can I say? It doesn’t pay much, but I miss it).
Getting back up to speed this week was difficult. For one thing, I had to squeeze out several eHows by Monday and circumstances led to me spending most of Sunday and all of Monday (after my annual medical checkup [quite fine, thanks])on them. So energy-wise, I felt like I was already a little drained when I began fictioneering on Tuesday.
Plus, it was just kind of slow revving up again. Working on Brain From Outer Space Tuesday, it was “Steve? Gwen? Who are these people?” Still, I did manage to clarify where I go next with the book.
The rest of the week went better:
•The first two quarters of The Savage Years look really good, but the third section (I’m using Lester Dent’s break-it-into-four-sections system on this one) just drags. In part, I need to trim exposition and explanations to a minimum—what the reader absolutely needs, no more. I didn’t finish the story this week, but it is much improved.
•I didn’t finish The Eye of White Cathay either, but it’s also much improved. Making the hero increasingly scruffy and unsuccessful really helps, and not giving him any time to learn what’s going on or actually decide whether to take on the adventure does too (by the time he learns what’s at stake, he’s in too deep to back out). Unlike Savage Years, however, I’m not sure I have an ending that works yet (with Savage Years it’s more a matter of refining what I have—the plot structure is solid).
•My PG Wodehouse fantasy story is (yes, again) not finished. It’s first draft so it needs lots of work, and I keep getting the urge to turn it in a direction I don’t want to: Make more of a classic Agatha Christie house-party mystery (“Oh no! A fog came up and we’re all stranded here with a murderer among us!”—that sort of thing), albeit a humorous one. Taking it in that direction would require more work than I really planned on, but it may have to happen.
I got paid for the first part of the film treatment I’m ghosting, the last RPR article and the ebook I did for Hyperink (which I’ll detail once it’s available). Plus of course, eHows.
And the eHows for the week:
•In-Home 3D: What Do You Want in Your Glasses?
•How to Buy HD on a Budget
•Pros and Cons of 3D TV: What to Consider
•Interactive TV: Apps, Games and More
•Mount Your Flat Screen on the Wall