Robin writes a book (and you get a copy) by Robin Sloan » The $10,000 short-story throw-down in the sky

The $10,000 short-story throw-down in the sky

Update #11 · Oct 5, 2009 · 15 comments

So, I'm going to start with some meat-and-potatoes updates—but then there's a special pitch at the end.
I'm at 25,000 words, which means I'm right on schedule. (Whew.) There's only one section that is entirely undrafted—the very end. The rest has had the benefit of several coats of paint. The urgent and exciting next step is to share this rough draft with some first readers, which I'm doing this week.
Also this week: New York! I'm going to speak at a conference about the Google Books settlement. Why was I invited, you ask? On the basis of my legal scholarship? Er, no. Rather, on the basis of a familiar short story. (This might have had something to do with it, too.) How cool is that?

But the writing won't stop, can't stop, not with 26 days left, so look for a dispatch from a New York City coffee shop. (And let me know if you have any suggestions for good writing spots.)
Now, a nerd note.
At around the 8,000 word mark, I switched from Google Docs to a Mac app called Scrivener. I've historically been skeptical of these special-purpose book-writing apps; turns out that was just because I've historically not been writing a book. Scrivener is fantastic.

Here's how the story looks in Scrivener right now—a sneak peek at its structure, with just a few redactions:
Scrivener table of contents
(Now, that's just a working structure, not the final table of contents. Even so, there are clues to be gleaned by diligent digital/occult investigators...)

For the writers out there: This is, I'm convinced, the dream setup. Write in Scrivener with a doc saved to a Dropbox folder mirrored in a bunch of different places (including, of course, Dropbox's own servers). No stress.
Finally, the fun part.
As I'm writing this, I'm at $9,853—just a handful of backers away from $10,000.

So here's the pitch: If we get to $10K before midnight PST on Tuesday, I'll do the world's first digital/occult (super) short-story throw-down in the sky. Five hours, 2,500 miles—so let's make it 2,500 words. I'll write and edit the story entirely on the plane and post it as soon as I land.

So, if you are interested in a special in-flight snack to stave off hunger while we all wait for October 31 to arrive: tell a friend (or pitch in, if you're just discovering this project) and give me something to do up there.

It's gonna be me and the Lost Symbol on Kindle otherwise...
Update: It's on!

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