Welcome to another edition of Work In Progress Wednesday. This is an idea I’ve borrowed from another blogger in which I will expound upon my writing projects, accomplishments or lack of accomplishment for the week that was, as well as tease what’s still ahead in my writing life. I’m using this column to hold myself accountable in my writing efforts. That way I’ll have something to write about each week. And when I get my items published, you can boast to all your friends that you were here at the very beginning.

So, enough introductory nonsense, herewith is the week that was:

Most of my writing over the past week has actually consisted of rewriting and editing of the spec script I am working on with my brother. We’re tweaking a few scenes here and there with a couple of goals in mind: we want to make our protagonist a bit more likable/relateable to readers/viewers and we want our antagonist to be a bit meaner. We’re also trying to make sure our background characters have goals of their own and are not just window dressing in the plot, but characters who actually matter to our protagonist and antagonist. Sounds like something we should have done in the beginning, I know, but our main goal was to get the story down in a sloppy first draft and then build off it. We should be at a point this weekend where we can print out a new version of our draft to look at over again. Once we both sign off on it, we’ll probably seek professional coverage on it. While we wait for that feedback, we may have a table read with friends.

My novel, River’s End, is still in standby mode at the moment. But as I noted last week, I’m gearing up to plow headfirst into it again as National Novel Writing Month kicks off. I’m using the last half of October to reassess where the novel stands and revisit my outline so that I have a clear path to forge come Nov. 1. I’m considering doing away with one of my last chapters as I don’t know if I want to keep it, but I probably will leave it be until the first draft is finished. Then I can make a better assessment of whether it belongs or not. Basically it involves one of my supporting characters. I’ll only keep it if I feel like he’s integral to the overall plot. As with any writing, I won’t actually delete what I’ve written entirely. If I decide to cut it, I’ll put it in a new file by itself and save for later. You never know if that scene or elements from the scene might come in handy at some point.

I am also working on a few side projects.

The first is a nonfiction book. I can’t divulge the topic as yet, but I’ve got a rough outline of the topics to be covered and a gameplan on how to organize the book, complete with pictures. The main thing is to then sit down and go through my resources for the book and compile highlights as necessary. I’m guesstimating it to be a three-month process from start to first draft. My self-imposed early deadline is to have something done by Jan. 31.

Side project number 2 involves short scripts for a possible web series. If all goes according to plan, my brother and his friends in sunny L.A. will then be able to take the scripts and run with them. Once filmed and edited, the episodes will be placed online for mass consumption. At some point we may weave in a bridge or two to tie the episodes more closely together and compile them as actual 30-minute length episodes, but for now each segment will be probably around five or six minutes in length.

Finally, I’m formulating an outline for a new spec script. This one is a psychological thriller in the tradition of Nightcrawler.

That’s it on the writing front this week. So, what are you working on?