writing marathon – Allison Renner Writes

In June 2021, I took part in Jami Attenberg’s 1,000 Words of Summer. I wrote at least 1,000 words per day for two weeks, and those pieces included all nine flash stories that eventually ended up in Green Light: A Gatsby Cycle. (The first few days of writing were something else entirely… but we won’t go there.)

Janet had already found her poems. In fact, her idea of using the first page of each chapter is why I used a sentence from the first page of each chapter to start a flash story. But we didn’t collaborate. It wasn’t until later that we put it all together and realized… hey, this works!

We sent Green Light out into the world—to nine publishers total! The last submission was to Alien Buddha Press. Red loved the book but had never worked with two authors on one project before, so he encouraged us to each submit our own books instead. And we did! (Janet published ghosts passing through and I published Won’t Be By Your Side.)

However, as the 100th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby grew closer, we knew we needed to get this book out in the world. With all the excitement celebrating that centennial, it would be perfect timing! So we reached out to Alien Buddha Press once more, hoping that Red would be willing to work with us as a duo since he’d worked with us individually. And he agreed! We streamlined things for him (I hope!) and marketed the hell out of the book for six weeks leading up to its publication date of April 10, 2025 – 100 years after the original Gatsby!

Just for fun, here are photos of my original handwritten drafts of the flash in Green Light.

And for even more fun, here are the word counts – then and now:

Chapter 1: 1057, now 738
Chapter 2: 1008, now 729
Chapter 3: 1064, now 694
Chapter 4: 1013, now 700
Chapter 5: 1126, now 732
Chapter 6: 1023, now 714
Chapter 7: 1002, now 705
Chapter 8: 1117, now 712
Chapter 9: 1074, now 668

Well, it’s November 1st.

Ever since 2007, that means I’m starting to write 50,000 words of a novel (or story collection) as part of National Novel Writing Month. While the organization has crumbled over the past year or two, the sense of needing to write still strikes me, much like the whole “back to school” vibe of September (though school starts here at the beginning of August…).

The truth is, I kind of started a challenge at the beginning of October: Autocrit’s Novel 90 writing challenge. Writing a novel in ninety days seemed totally doable since I used to create an extremely rough draft in thirty. Except the idea I wanted to write just wasn’t coming together, and I spent most of the month trying to figure out whodunnit so I could complete the outline.

Whoops.

I pivoted though, and started writing a different idea that I’ve had in the back of my mind. Which means I’m writing without an outline, but that’s how November typically goes for me.

I’m also participating in the Sisters in Crime November Marathon. I’m a new member and want to make the most of the community, so I’m jumping right in with the hope of completing a draft of a cozy mystery this month.

Oh, and I can’t forget Nancy Stohlman’s FlashNano. Clearly this is just the month to kick myself in the pants!

Mostly, I wanted to share because I feel like I’ve been stagnant for much of this year. My flash writing has been on hold as I focus on longer works. Writing a novel feels satisfying, but I miss drafting a quick little piece and helping it find a home a few months later. With the exception of National Flash Fiction Day and the Ekphrastic Marathon, most of my publications this year were in the works since submitting last year, so my spreadsheet is looking empty.

It’s also nice to hold myself accountable, even if it’s only to the internet.