Scribbles
Just a few words
Tomorrow, I come out with my “Short Story After 8” selection: “NO SIMPLE REMEDY.” I’m excited about it, and hope you will be once you read it. I do wonder what a good length is for reading is, though. No one seems to want to tell me. Is it 1,000 words; 1,500; 2,000; 2,500? There is a length that is considered the sweet spot. I don’t know what that is. I’m trying to keep it at, or about, 2,000 words, although I do have a tendency to go over the limit.
I’ve been lazily writing my King Arthur story. I just finished Chapter Two and will be starting on Chapter Three soon enough. As I want to follow Mallory, I find myself having to read and plot along so I don’t get lost. I call it mini-plotting. I have to know what’s going on chronologically from where my story stands. I can say Launcelot left Camelot, but what about Tristram arriving with King Mark’s wife, who had run away with him? They’re supposed to have a battle, (Tristram and Lance), and after a long time one on one, reveal “each to the other,” as they like to say. Launcelot sends them to Camelot, and then leaves.
It’s at this point where my story starts. Ten different Knights have gone out looking for Launcelot. One of them has bumped into Grummer and Locksley. It’s at this point when our adventure starts. I have to make this different from what happens in Mallory, obviously. I want it to have its funny bits, too. The idea of having them visit a whore house in the first place is as out of the norm for a King Arthur story as you can get. I want Grummer to be taking Locksley to Camelot, but I want them to visit whore houses on their way south.
As I said, I just do my mini-plotting to keep my head above water. I have to write this story and keep it moving along, as much as I have to make sure I have a short story waiting to be queued up. The one I have now should give me a window of about 6 weeks to get the next one prepared as I write the book as well.
