That was pleasantly unexpected (#SFWApro)

My stretch of pure fiction ended today, as I resumed writing articles for Demand Media.
What I didn’t expect was that I’d be so efficient this week. I’ve blogged in the past about how all-fiction weeks make it very easy to slack off, but apparently having almost three weeks gave me time to adjust to the new groove. Tragically a done-and-gone groove, but it was fun while it lasted.
•As I mentioned yesterday, I Think, Therefore I Die is now out online. The actual work involved, of course, was some months ago, but it did make for a nice week.
•I began replotting Southern Discomfort (and thinking I really need a better title). As I said last month, the overwhelming feedback from the writer’s group was that it was too confusing with so many players introduced at the start. In the rewrite, I’m slowing down my opening scene to give readers time to get adjusted. Then I’ll focus almost entirely on Maria’s POV, with short interludes from someone else.
Drawbacks are that there are several characters I haven’t worked into the mix yet. And later in the story, I have to start doing whole chapters from another character’s POV, and I wonder if that change will be confusing.
•I began the new draft of Brain From Outer Space yesterday (also drawing on the advice from the writer’s group). The prologue looks very good and sets up the character arcs I want. Of course, sustaining them over the entire 80,000 words (or so) will be the challenge… I’ll probably get that beta-read in the next couple of months just to see if it works as well as I think.
•I worked on Mage’s Masquerade, but it’s not going as well as I thought. At the very least, I think I need to expand it a lot (I’d originally tried keeping it to under 5,000 words, but apparently my brain runs longer).
•I sent off two short stories and found a market for a third that won’t open until mid-month.
•I rewrote the short stories The Day the Rabbits Ate People, According to His Abilities and Indistinguishable from Magic. All a long way from finished, but all moving in the right direction. It’s Never Jam Today and Button, Button, however, refused to move. I made some improvements to Schloss and the Switchblade but it’s far from usable still. Just the same, I feel there’s something there I can use.
Hopefully, I can keep the energy and the concentraton level as I move into my regular Demand Media load (five articles a day) next week.