The Story Match Challenge—Day 1: July 7, 2015

So, in Australia, it was July 7, 2015, and in the U.S. it was the still July 6, which, according to the rules of my private challenge, meant I had to write a 3,000-word short story. As part of his personal short story challenge, Dean Wesley Smith finished BestEaten on a Slow Tuesday. I had had a very unproductive day—couldn’t settle, was still suffering from the flu, constant interruptions and so forth, and today I had come the decision that I needed a way to push myself past the excuses and onto the next level, so I let his challenge inspire me to undertake a challenge of my own, and today was the first day.

So. The result? Well, let me see.

I started the challenge late—at around 10 p.m., because that’s when I finally decided to go for it—and I didn’t finish writing the short story before midnight, so it counts as a loss. On the upside, though, I reached 2,315 words by 0013, and I’ll finish it on Day 2.

This piece surprised me by being science fiction. It starts with a family betrayal, and I have a vague idea of how it’s going to finish. It should end up just on or over the 3,000 word goal. I’ve called it The Sevarine Sidestep.

There were other parts to this challenge. I succeeded in writing the two pieces of flash fiction for 366 Days of Flash Fiction, but not on the other three components.