Previously I mentioned that, post-Nanowrimo, I have been working on short stories.

Last week I wrote:

Another story was inspired by a couple of small things noticed on our recent day trip to Montreal — a car with multiple parking tickets under the windshield wiper, an art exhibition with several small rooms with video installations.

The more I worked on this story, the more I found myself considering the ‘story’ itself and how I saw the order of events. I had an idea that the scenes existed in a spiral or constellation. That they could be presented in a variety of different ways. That the story, such as it was, presented glimpses at a person, a character, who only existed in his absence, in the perception of others.

I had a selection of scenes and, in trying to determine their order, I gradually came to the decision that order was not something that I particularly had an interest in imposing on the story I was trying to tell.

Sidetracked by the ‘how’ of presenting it, I ended up using a WordPress template and doing the scenes as posts.

So, it’s still a work in progress (particularly the content, as I got carried away by the form), but Constellation 1 is available if you’re interested.

I don’t know what I really see as the endpoint for this — and I think the form question is still evolving and the narrative is still developing — but it is an intriguing experiment.

I’m also still working on some other stories and ideas of a more traditional sort.

Also, a review of the Welcome to Night Vale novel will be coming shortly (sneak preview: it’s so awesome!).