I woke up one week ago today and immediately started writing a new short story. Forty hours later, at 10:00 p.m. Sunday night, I had a completed first draft of 5,000 words.

That’s never happened to me before. Based on my usual speed of writing, words accruing like a coral reef, a story of that length would usually take from a week to 10 days to achieve finished first draft stage. (What can I say? I’m no Jay Lake.

Perhaps the reason the story poured out of me so quickly was that I’d been carrying the basic concept around for years, and my attendance at the Stokers a few weeks ago acted as a catalyst.

Would you like to read it? Good!

Because there it is.

Hope you enjoyed it!

But seriously … that’s just my outline, scribbled down after I wrote the first scene, so it includes everything but that. When I begin the actual writing of a story, that all the outline I generally have, a word or two per scene, acting as a marker for scene structure and pacing.

I gave over most of today to the editing of the story, and will do the same with tomorrow. I do believe I’ll have the tale finished by late Sunday night, another remarkable achievement based on my usual speed for further drafts, and plan on submitting it Monday.

I’m tempted to let you try to figure out, as upcoming stories of mine are published, exactly which tale this outline should be attached to. But instead I think that, once it’s published, I’ll identify the story so you can come back and try to find its skeleton within the fleshed-out piece as it appears in print.

And now … back to editing!