I took the day off from work on Thursday. Not because I wanted to prepare an epic Valentine’s Day surprise for my wife but to go to the dentist. Thankfully, it doesn’t take an entire day to go to the dentist (unless you’re really behind with your flossing) and my appointment was early which left me the rest of the day to write – and write I did.

I’ve been hitting my head against the outline for the rewrite of The Ghost Smuggler for a few weeks now and I’ve got it to the point where I’m almost ready to start writing again but with a whole day of free time available to dedicate to writing I wanted to actually write rather than just think about writing. It was time to call Ethel the Muse and hit the ideas folder.

I’ve had an idea for a Lovecraftian story sitting around for a couple of years but for some reason that particular idea really grabbed hold of me on Wednesday evening and by the morning I’d fleshed out the story and was really excited about writing it.

I’ve been pretty pleased with how the seven point story structure and outlining has been working for The Ghost Smuggler so I did something I’ve never done before – I outlined the new story, following the seven point story structure. I also went back and read HP Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth because although my story is modern (or maybe near future), it’s set in Innsmouth and has ties to that story. It’s been a long time since I read any Lovecraft so it was good to dive back into those waters and I was able to take various elements from Lovecraft and weave them into my own – for example, room 428 in the Gilman House feature prominently in both stories.

All in all, I spent about four hours at the keyboard and the end result was a 1,951 word story – The Ordeal (Season One, Episode Thirteen). It’s sitting in my unfinished folder now while my subconscious forgets all about it. I’ll revise it later this week and then start submitting (or hopefully submit it once and start celebrating shortly afterwards).

I was very happy with how the writing went and I’m convinced that both the seven point story structure and outline helped a lot so I’ll be taking the same approach with the next story I write – whatever that is.

After a day of writing, I needed a change so my wife and I went to Silver Linings Playbook – it’s just the sort of quirky comedy we enjoy and I hope it does well at the Oscars.

[The article An Innsmouth Valentine’s by Philip Harris originally appeared on Solitary Mindset on February 17th, 2013]