Writing Goals Update March 2015

I've been playing a lot of MMO online games.  As a consequence, I haven't managed to write very much since July.  But!  I did finally finish two stories this month -- so far.

For January Writer's Night I read Villain of the Weak, which got a good reception (Gene provided a much better, almost perfect ending line.)  February Writer's Night I read my story Revealing, which needs a couple of tweaks but got a good reception.  One thing about that story is that you learn about a former villain of Grandpa's named Judge Doomhollow, and I realized that I really needed to place him in another story.  So within the next couple of weeks I worked on, and finally managed to finish, a story called Permit.

Right after this I had an idea for a story inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft tale From Beyond.  I wrote my story that night, and titled it Abjure the Realm of No Return, which is a title I both love and hate.  In any case, these two stories are what I've accomplished for 2015.  I read Abjure at the March Writer's Night and it went over very well, only John had any comments which were small tweaks designed to improve the story (they did).  In fact, I didn't really provide a description for Grandpa, and there's no sidekick in the story, and nobody complained about either of these things, so I think the story worked quite well (I've since added a descriptive line for Grandpa, of course).

So my goal:  Write two stories a month for the year:

January:

May 5:  Permit
May 7:  Abjure the Realm of No Return

I am signed up for April's Camp NaNoWriMo and my goal will be to write a story a day, so we'll see if I can really manage that.  I accomplished this as a goal last April but failed in July when I tried it again.  But I have a lot of ideas I've come up with in the past half-year:

It's All Relative - An idea from last July that I still like.  Crackpots all over the world claim to disprove Einstein's Theory of Relativity -- it's kind of like Crackpot Science 101, that's just where they all start for some reason -- but in a world with superhero physics, what if a person's strong belief in their own crazy theory might actually alter reality?

Brain Salad / Banner of Worms - From February 2015.  This is one of those "ideas" that I can't remember what the central idea really was.  Apparently it's a story about a lone zombie being hunted by hordes of zombie apocalypse survivalists -- which now that I think about it, that's kind of a funny idea.

Dress Your Best - From last Fall, but worked on in January 2015.  This is a story that I've written a lot in the past few months, without really coming up with a good ending/plot.  I like the idea because I like the setting and the sidekick involved, and even the villain.  But it needs somewhere to go.

The Candyman Can / Chocolate Castle - Aug 2014.  A story in search of a better title, this is also more than half written and in need good ending.  A villain steals all the chocolate in town and constructs a castle out of it, which is slowly melting.

Dream A Little Dream - This one is kind of a riff on the Call of Cthulhu.  Surprisingly, I've written quite a bit of it (just a few weeks ago -- this is a March 2015 idea) and then almost forgot about it completely.

The Dreamquest of Unknown Anarchy - March 2015.  So many ideas for this, so little direction.  I've actually written down quite a bit for this one.  My general idea is to do three short stories that serve as scenes out of a much larger work that you never get to see.  I've done that before.  There's a lot of material in the Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath to riff on, but I don't have any specific jokes or concise ideas yet.

I've listed this as my project title for Camp NaNoWriMo in April, although at best it's 3 or 4 short stories that are tied together.

Deadly Rainbow - July 2014.  Apparently I thought this was a funny title for a Grandpa Anarchy story.  I have no story attached to this file, just the title.

The Dutchman's Trousers - March 2015.  Grandpa fights a possessed pair of trousers.

Elementary - I've never done a Grandpa Anarchy explains the murder scene.  That's the basis for this story, which is more than half written.  From October 2014.

Godwined - A sort of story idea built around Godwin's Law of Time Travel, or possibly a proposed Godwin's Law of Superheroism, or maybe even tangentially related to Reductio ad Hitlerum.  I haven't really gotten beyond that basic idea.  July 2014.

The Great Brain Robbery - It's a brain switch story.  I don't think I've done one of those yet.  Only a few lines to this one so far, but I have the complete idea so it's ready for me to write.  Sept 2014.

Hooked On A Feeling - From August 2014, this is, yes, a space opera story inspired by Guardians of the Galaxy.  I don't know if I have an actual plot though.

Mercury In Retrograde - I'm not sure if I had a clear-cut idea for this one either, other than to riff on silly astrology.

Mission - An idea based on a "what if Grandpa got tips for missions like you do in an MMO game?"  I'm not sure if this really deserves to be a finished story or not.

Nefarious Things - Just a title really, no story attached.

Patron of the Arts - I think this is the Nina Ballerina origin story.

Rare Books - It occurs to me that the Necronomicon is like the Gideon's Bible of rare occult books.   It's everywhere.  March 2015.

Robe and Wizard Hat - No story idea attached, but I really need a story with this title.

Serial Anarchy - This was going to be a novel that I wrote in November.  I didn't get far.

Shadow Out Of Joe's Mouth - A story about a strange shadow creature.  This is actually a story about a villain from the Grandpa Anarchy comic books suddenly appearing in the real world.  March 2015.

The Space Between Worlds - This was actually an early version of Abjure the Realm of No Return, which I wrote a few weeks ago.  I think I saved the idea as two different names.

Substitute - An idea from July that I still want to do, about Grandpa Anarchy working as a substitute teacher at a school for gifted superpowered kids.

Superdrone - a villain who fights by proxy -- drone proxy.  An idea I came up with today, that I should be writing now instead of this.

The Curse - A story idea inspired by a song, Drink With the Living Dead.  Grandpa's been in that kind of situation before, I think -- except Grandpa doesn't drink.

The Machine - A play on the phrase Dues Ex Machina, where a god literally comes out of a machine.

The Thing in the Sewer - Monster in the sewer story.  Kind of a lame idea, although I have an ending.

Time On My Hands - I'd forgotten about this one, from Nov 2014.  A story about the Literate Lemur trying to kill Grandpa Anarchy -- which is definitely not his style.  I've written a lot on this one.

Whom the Mad Would Destroy - A Death Medal story.  Mostly a few lines of dialog, but I like them so much that I need to craft a story around them.

Why Do Ghosts Have Clothes - Seriously.  Why?