“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better.”

-Anne Lamott

Here at the Story Factory, we value quantity over quality. 

More words, more hours, more stories. The goal is 52 stories at the end of the year. So far, we are on target. Which, I know, isn’t much to say at this point of the year, but on the other hand, this time last year, I was already behind. So, Wednesdays, we will report production and celebrate the little victories.

Wednesday 3/3/2021 Production Report:

Words for the week 2/24-3/2 – 8.331

Hours for the week 2/24-3/2 – 35

Cumulative through 3/2

Words – 91,182

Hours – 336

(That includes Morning pages each day, prewriting on either the week’s story or the novel that I am re-writing, and this blog. I only count the short story once, so there is the total for that, and I don’t count the blog on Story Sunday. )

Analysis:

As I noted on the Monthly review, I am a bit behind on hours. But should be easily able to make them up. This week I was a bit short on words and reading short stories, but I did post my weekly story. Sometimes the day job does get in the way a bit. 

My reading this week will probably involve Cal Newport’s new book about email and its soul-crushing ability to interfere with deep work. I am looking forward to that. 

This week’s story from The Art of the Short Story is from a writer I have never heard of, a blind librarian from Argentina, Jorge Luis Borges. I am looking forward to a new writer and a new South American perspective. I have read works by Central American writers, but I cannot think of any fiction by a South American writer. But one of my favorite novels is Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind, and Zafon has been compared to Borges. This should be a good reading week. 

So, Grammarly tells me that I have met all my writing goals but one in this post. I have one fragment up at the top. Screw it. It’s staying.

Have a great week!