Works in Progress, 2026

It’s starting to feel like I will never be able to finish writing everything I want to.

Not in a dark or depressing way; I’m not going sickly, Victorian debutante here and hinting at some dramatic, early death.

I’m just saying that, at this point, my personal tools have finally kicked in to such a degree that I get new, viable story ideas (or, what feel like viable story ideas at the time) pretty frequently. To a degree that’s almost too much.

For example, last Monday, I was doing work unrelated to my writing and I had:

1. A nightmare that had the makings of a good, weird Horror story (I’m still kicking it around).
2. A bunch of scene ideas.
3. A killer, new angle on a story rewrite.
4. A solid Two-Sentence Horror story (although I forgot it before I could write it down because of the next item on this list).
5. A major epiphany about a novel idea that might be my magnum opus now. I hate using that term because it sounds pretentious, but it’s an important distinction; I always thought my one, big story would be a return to the project I developed all through high school and college, but this epiphany for a new, totally different project finally changed my mind about that. If I had to write only one thing for the rest of my life, it would probably be this new idea, which I wish I could start working on right now

Obviously, the loss of that Two-Sentence isn’t huge (my mantra is always, “If I forgot it, it wasn’t memorable”) but the sheer act of losing it while feverishly writing down other story ideas was a little shocking. Demonstrable proof that my writing time is truly finite… and goddammit, that sentence just reminded me of another idea I wanted to write down.

Ugh. Look–the point is, I’m writing a lot these days. I had a major process breakthrough last year, and the result is that I’ve put more pen to paper in the last few months than I ever have in such a short stretch of time. No lie, between a massive story bible for my next novel, two Horror shorts, and a Horror novella, I think I’m already creeping up on the amount of time I spent pen-to-paper on my first two novels.

Managing those projects and the influx of new ideas has become it’s own thing–a plan of action that I’m chipping away at day by day–and I figured why not post about it?

The Current WIP’s

1. A Body Horror short.
   I already finished a first draft of it, but it needs some major rewrites because it wound up not landing like I wanted. The original motive was to avoid some tropes, but that avoidance led to something boring with a theme that was underserved. I know how to fix it though, so not a big deal.
2. A Psychological Horror short.
   Currently about 80% done. Definitely the hardest of the current batch to write for a lot of reasons, one of which is the “vehicle” of the story; it essentially forces me to narrate from two characters’ perspectives at the same time, so it gets tricky. Slow going because I don’t want to mess it up, but I’m getting there.
3. A Creature Feature Horror novella.
   Tough because it ran way, way longer than I expected it to, but it’s finished. Closest to what I call “final form” (all the pieces are in place and rewriting/additions/deletions don’t feel necessary–it just needs polishing).
4. A Sci-Fi/Horror novel.
   Immensely complicated and still a while from pen-to-paper. Took a break from worldbuilding and plotting it to write the above stories first.
5. Aixa the Hexcaster novel.
   It took forever, but I finally have a clear idea of what I want that story to be and I’m excited about it. Also getting little snippets coming to me now (finally–only took ten years), which means I’m rarin’ to go on it.
6. A rewrite of Memory, my second novel–maybe. I have ideas for what I want to do with it, and those ideas are good, but I’ve already rewritten that novel once. If I’m going to do it again, I really need to convince myself it’s worth it, and I’m not sure I will.
7. The one, big novel, which I’m imagining as Dark Fantasy.

Currently, that’s everything. Three shorts, four~ novels. Very strange to lay it out like this because that amount of writing is probably going to be the next ten years of my life.

But the important thing here is that there is a plan.

And that plan is going to yield tangible results, even in the short term.

Because, after decades of doing the classic approach of submitting manuscripts to publishers and waiting for replies, I’m finally saying, “Fuck it.”

I will be submitting one or both of the shorts to a very different market. That market will be free, and they also might get a ton of attention–if they’re good.

But, on top of that, I’m planning to self-publish the Creature Feature novella. Kinda scary to say it, but also liberating; the idea that I potentially won’t have to mail a story anywhere–that I won’t have to wait on anyone else for years and years for something to happen with it–is extremely liberating.

Sure, it’ll take a ton of work, but, hey, I’m a writer. “A ton of work” is just what we do.

Speaking about “work,” next time, I’ll drop that new, free, 2026 writing tool. And after that? I’ll talk about the process breakthrough that kicked my creativity into overdrive.

Stay tuned.

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That’s all for now. As always, thanks for reading.

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