Warp Factory: Recap

I started to write a short story called Warp Factory about four or five years ago.

The name triggered the story. And what a cool name. Warp Factory. But what did it mean?

I didn’t know. But man, I loved that title. It screamed for attention, had multiple connotations and would definitely grab an editor’s attention. Very sellable, I thought. Only I had no plot.

So, from a title I started to think of one. And from that simple premise I began writing…

The story is a little…odd. The character is a sleep-deprived, dry, obsessive, a drifter moving from job to job (mirroring at the time the fact I wasn’t enjoying working where I was) who begins his first day at this strange little factory. The people are oddballs, social misfits, caricatures and as our protagonist delves deeper into what that the factory makes and what it does he finds he has a natural aptitude, a place he has finally settled.

Not quite.

There’s a few twists along the way, in my head at least. I stopped writing this story in November 2004 after hitting multiple roadblocks which I envisage I will crash into once I pick this up and begin writing again.  I like it. I hope I can do it justice.

Originally I had planned to jump into Stand-off but I thought, well as I’ve just finished off one story that took 12 years then surely I can finish this one off? So here I am.

There is also K&M (based on an 6 year old screenplay) in the pipeline. Much more on that later…

Crumplezone rejected

by Dark Recesses.

Bit of an empty rejection email tbh. Nothing but ‘thanks, but no thanks.”. C’mon guys it doesn’t hurt for a couple lines of why you don’t like it. I’ve been on the other side and know how sometimes it’s hard to say anything about a story you realised just doesn’t fit either with you or your magazine but I always stuck a paragraph in there explaining that.

Grr. I normally send a thank you email, but I’ll pass this time.

Bullet with Butterfly Wings is…..

Finished!

Yes, at 10.30pm I wrote the final line on Bullet With Butterfly Wings after 12 (twelve) years. The last 1000 words flew by, my writing becoming more and more erratic as I ploughed on towards the final confrontation between Alex, Mav and Thiebert. Fortunately I more or less knew the ending (it was getting there that was the trick) and I just had to massage all the plot elements and characters into place. Then I sat back and congratulated myself..

After two and a half hours my right hand aches. Not used to writing that much. Now that the story is finished I need to focus on getting my notes into Scrivener and then I need to process the logic and make sure everything makes sense. The first half of the story was written 12 years ago (and never edited) and plot-holes abound at every corner and junction.

The plan is to focus on getting all my hand-written notes into digital form and then park this story and immediately jump onto something else. And that ’something else’ is either: -

Standoff – fully plotted. Estimated 20k words. Zombies in Hong Kong.
Warp Factory - not even slightly plotted. Half written and abandoned 5 or so years ago. I’ve always liked the story and I love the style (1st person natch) but I haven’t a clue what I’m doing with it. Estimated 10k words.

I’m halfway tempted to jump into Standoff but Warp Factory keeps nagging at me. We’ll see.