January 2023 Notes

Notes from the Fiction Factory - Month in Review

Photo by Clark Young on Unsplash

Happy February and welcome to a new segment of The Pulp Fictioneer. Here I will give a quick recap of the previous month’s activities with the writing and my plans going forward.

January 2023 is finished. Let’s jump right into it

Words Written

I’ve started to track my overall word counts to not only keep organized but also to help me visualize the progress made day after day, month after month. The goal for 2023 is about 576,000 words and I have about 7,500 words at the end of January. Woof.

Slow start (eh life happens) but I’ve consistently produced either a short story or flash fiction piece every week since the start of the year. Publishing flash fiction stories weekly (missed last week…shsss) helps me practice the craft and keep the routine. That’s a win in my book. Here are the numbers:

Short Stories (1,000 - 7,500 words) : 2

Flash Fiction (100 - 999 words) : 3

My goal for this month is to ramp up production, specifically with stories over 2,000 words, and keep building momentum.

Market Watch

Right now I have one story out to magazines. Again, woof but this is an easy fix.

By end of week I should have 4-5 stories out to markets. This is why upping production is critical. The goal is to absolutely overwhelm the magazine markets with stories. This is a simple correction y by simply focusing on the writing.

Butt + Chair x Typing = Writing.

Stories Read

Back in December 2022, I picked up a collection of twelve novellas written by pulp legend L. Ron Hubbard for the total sum of….$10. Gotta love antique shops! I’ve started to crack into them starting with Hostage to Death, a young Lieutenant in the French Foreign Legion sets out to save an American woman held captive by desert raiders. These are fun, quick reads overflowing with fast action, punchy dialogue, and heroic adventure. Like most people, I only knew Hubbard as the founder of Scientology but believe me when I say he wrote some thrilling yarn too.

Outside of the Hubbard books, I’m reading Charles Beaumont’s collection of stories The Howling Man and studying him carefully. I learn something new by revisiting some of my favorite stories whether it’s pacing, plot, or characterization.

Fun Stuff

This is the part where I share some interesting finds from the month.

For the Pulp fans:

The fine folks at The Obelisk published a great article about Pulp Magazines, a site that features a buffet of links to vintage comics, audio dramas, movies, and pulp novels. I checked it out last weekend and watched the 1932 film The Most Dangerous Game. If you love all things pulpy, check out The Obelisk on Substack and Pulp Magazines.

Continuing on the pulp trend, I stumbled upon Pulp Figures, a Canadian company that specializes in beautiful sculpted figurines by owner Bob Murch. I’ve linked his website above. Below are a some cool pictures from his gallery.

For fans of Horror/Anime/TV Anthologies

Recently I stumbled upon Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre on Netflix. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for long, you’ll know I’m a sucker for some anthologies. I picked up Junji Ito’s collection Shiver to really get a taste of his style and storytelling.

That’s the quick and dirty summary of January. A slow start but a productive one with a lot of fun stories written. I’m 1200 words deep into a new story this week which you, dear reader, will get a chance to read once finished. I won’t spoil anything but if you like weird, Twilight Zone style stories then you’re in for a treat. So far it’s been a blast writing it. It’s a fresh new month — go and make it a great one.

Till next time.