You Can Help Choose My Next Story

I finally participated in NaNoWriMo, although technically it was NaSSWriMo, because I worked on short stories.

This may seem odd for someone who wrote a blog post five years ago in which I explored why one would not want to participate in this month-long extravaganza of word-gurgitation.

“I am not an extrinsically motivated writer,” I said in that post. “I write fiction at my own tempo. I write because I have no choice. I would write if I were the only writer in the world and, dare I say, if there were no readers…”

One concern expressed in the comments on my 2014 blog post is that NaNoWriMo encourages a glut of hastily constructed and poorly edited novels. This may be true for some, but I believe serious writers regard the month as a period of generation, after which will come a—probably much longer—period of reflection, editing, and polishing.

And so it will be for me.

My challenge, however, is to choose what to work on from the mound of material I’ve generated. So I’m asking for your help to prioritize. Just read through the brief synopses in the form below, and cast your vote!