Works in Progress

Last week on Twitter a Works in Progress Meme circulated, and I couldn’t resist playing along.

Here’s what I shared according to the likes I received:

  1. Novel: Gay Airship Pirates, which now includes a feminist book binding sharpshooter and her paraplegic husband who is more awesome than you.
  2. Short Story: Space Mermaids, which are not mermaids because space, but still lure sailors to their doom… or do they??? Queer protag; snarky girlfriend.
  3. Short Story: New Orleans house has so much character it possesses a girl and has to come to grips with being mortal.
  4. Short Story: WWII Coffee Robots—everything changes post V-E Day; is there still a place in the world/economy for robots? Also, robots <3 cats.
  5. Novel: Time Traveling Archeologists steal artifacts from the past—that’s why some objects become “lost to time.” (inspiration: Daniel Jackson/Robin Hood)
  6. Novel/Series: THE STEAMPUNK—secret organization seeks to overthrow the monarchy, unwitting machinists & opera singers get involved. Co-authored with @momebie.
  7. Novel: Space pirate/book collector collab with @sopdet. Adventures! Romance! Books!
  8. Short Story/Novella: An amateur scientist “tests” a window that allows you to see 2 weeks into the future. One day he doesn’t see himself outside the window.
  9. Short Story: Arrogant scientist proclaims the end is here! His sentient robots keep up the sham that the world ended to protect his fragile ego.
  10. Short Story: An old creepy doll abandoned on a park bench gains sentience because people assume it has sentience.
  11. Novella/Novel?: Pair of spy sisters have telepathy, but only when drinking tea.
  12. Short Story/Novella?: Scientists create “metallic mermaids” to save ships, but then the mermaids start reconstructing shipwrecks and bringing them to the surface.

What works do you have in progress?

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Doing

Starting a “pro blog” is weird. I kept a personal blog on Livejournal when that was what all the kids were doing, and I moved to Tumblr, even though I never really figured out what to do with Tumblr other than find all of the writing blogs and then reblog pictures and gifs of Captain America and Nightwing. But a blog tied to my public persona as a writer and professional still feels a bit beyond me. What will I say? How will people react? Who will actually care?*

It’s scary to put yourself out there no matter if you’re writing, dating, or opening a potato-peeling business. There’s always the opportunity for failure—or, potentially worse, for silence. So why do it? Why throw myself out there with the possibility that no one is listening and that I’ll still struggle with what to write?

. . . Hmm. You are suspiciously quiet on this topic.

For me, the only real failure is in not trying. Potential is a beautiful thing that can be protected by not acting. I’ll always have the potential to be a writer, even if I never write. I mean, I have the potential to be a trapeze artist or an astrophysicist, even though both seem fairly unlikely at this point. There is a possibility—somewhere—that I could be those things if only I tried. Potential isn’t real; it’s hypothetical and untested. The only way to be anything is to do, to put myself out there and try. So here I am. Doing. How’s it going so far?

* Hopefully prospective clients, publishers, and other people who may actually want to work with me and read my work.

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