Whoa, is it that time of week again already? Seems like I blinked and another week went by. To be honest, I very nearly forgot to write this week’s update: my studies and my personal life have both begun taking up more of my time, and more of my headspace. But, joy of joys, I remembered just in time.

Most of this past week’s writing was dedicated to that new Nightmares Inc. ending. I’ve found it a little harder to stay motivated this time around: that mostly has to do with this current project technically being an edit, seeing how Nightmares Inc. has been around in some form for over 4 years now. Editing is a necessary part of the writing process, but it can be tedious sometimes, and even writing a new section of an old book isn’t quite as exciting as writing something completely new, at least for me.

But hey, hopefully the new ending at least brings Nightmares Inc. a little closer to a publishable state. After the new ending is done, I plan to do one more editorial pass on it (to clean up language, maybe add some description, quadruple-check the plot and pacing, and so on), then start showing it to peer readers. This’ll probably just end up being one or two close friends and family members, but then again, I’ve started going to meetings for a writing club at my university, so who knows? Maybe I could convince someone there to take a chance on it.

I’m still hoping to be done the new Nigthmares Inc. ending by the end of February. This past week was an inconsistent week in terms of how much I wrote: I had a few 3000+-word days, but I also had a few days of barely anything at all. Much of that, I’m guessing, has to do with the lessened motivation I talked about earlier: even if I can’t pick up the pace, though, having it done by the end of February seems like a reasonable goal.

I also came up with a bunch of new ideas for short stories. This is useful because I don’t actually have that many short stories to market right now: there’s Endure, but that’s basically it. With all the novel-length projects I want to get going on, I don’t know when any of those ideas will get done…but if I can even check two or three off the list, I’ll have more stories to cycle around between the various magazines, and will, at least in theory, have a better chance of getting something accepted.

Speaking of getting something accepted, I still haven’t heard back about Endure. That could mean the magazine I sent it to is thinking long and hard about whether to accept or reject the story…or it could mean their slush pile is simply so huge that they still haven’t gotten to it yet. Obviously, I’m hoping for the former: if it’s the latter, that’s 3 months I had to wait just for another form rejection (I think this demonstrates quite well my need for a few other short stories to market. Then I can hopefully stagger the submissions and rejections somewhat).

I still expect a rejection, of course. When you write, you quickly learn to expect the worst from your submissions. But, as I said last week, even a rejection with feedback would be a victory of sorts.

Anyhow, that’s about all I’ve got for you this week. If this next week is really productive, there’s an outside chance I could finish the new Nightmares Inc. ending by the February 24 update. However, the last few days of February or the first few days of March is probably a more realistic target date. And I guess it makes little difference to those of you reading this update, since you still won’t get to read the thing for a long while, if ever.

Alright, enough blathering. Now I must leave you all. Unless some unforeseen tragedy befalls me, though, I’ll be back next week. Until then, have fun, stay safe and keep reading.