SF Signal: 2006 New Year's Resolution

2006 New Year's Resolution

OK, after some careful consideration (and a brief lapse of sanity) I have decided to repeat my 2004 New Year's Resolution and read short stories throughout 2006. In keeping with the realization back then that I should get some extra credit for longer stories (novelettes and novellas), I will again use the patented SF-POINTS^© system of weighing each story. To recap: using the SFWA's definitions we have:

.25 points = Vignette (less than 1,000 words)
1 point = Short Story (1,000 - 7,500 words)
2 points = Novelette (7,500 - 17,500 words)
4 points = Novella (17,500 - 40,000)

Thus, to formalize the resolution: I resolve to read 365 SF-POINTS^©-worth of stories in 2006.

Shouldn't be too bad. I was able to do it in 2004 with room to spare.

Posted by John on Monday January 02, 2006 at 3:55 PM

Good to see your going through with it. I'll try to match it, but once again using my non-patented brute-force method of one story/novella/novelette/essay/article/collection item equals one point of Short Fred Units.

Posted by FredKiesche on Wednesday January 18, 2006 at 6:52 PM

Excellent! Yeah, your taking the more sadistic approach. 365 titles is way more than I read two years ago.

Keep us posted...Good luck!

Posted by John on Wednesday January 18, 2006 at 9:36 PM

28+ stories done. I'm logging them as I read them, but only counting them when I finish a collection.

Posted by FredKiesche on Thursday January 26, 2006 at 8:29 PM

203 stories read by the brute-force method! The brute-force method seems to be beating the stuffing out of the SF Signal patented method!

Posted by FredKiesche on Thursday June 15, 2006 at 11:56 AM

Heh-heh. More power to you. The points kludge was the only way I could get 365 a year.

Posted by John on Thursday June 15, 2006 at 12:05 PM

Well, my method isn't the most graceful. Get reduced from full-time to half-time and suddenly find yourself with more reading time!

204 stories now.

Posted by FredKiesche on Thursday June 15, 2006 at 12:27 PM

148 brute-force tales to go. Changed my format to list most recent stories read to give folks a heads up as to what is new.

http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/2006/06/short-stories-2006-master-list-this-is.html

Better get cracking, bucko!

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Monday June 19, 2006 at 8:22 PM

333 stories completed. Get cracking, monkey-boy!

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Saturday July 15, 2006 at 7:45 PM

You are the Harriet Klausner of short stories. Well, you would be if you rated them all 5-star stories...

Posted by John on Saturday July 15, 2006 at 11:10 PM

75 stories to go to hit 600. The suspense is killing me.

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Thursday November 09, 2006 at 10:02 AM

ALright, I want to try this for 2007. Following yours has been great so I want to give it a try. Where would I find the word count for stories???????

Posted by bryans on Tuesday November 28, 2006 at 1:27 PM

The Locus Index to Science Fiction lists anthologies and whether their included stories are short stories(ss), novelettes (nv) or novallas (na). For brand new anthologies which are not yet listed, just Google for the anthology name .

Or, you can take the "easy" way out like Fred and just count stories.

Have fun!

Posted by John on Tuesday November 28, 2006 at 1:51 PM

600 stories. My work is done here. Goodbye.

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Thursday December 07, 2006 at 7:16 AM