D. Fritz: Blog

I posted my first submission to Stories Online in October 2020. I started Two Perspectives without knowing whether or not I would finish it, or if a half-written manuscript would languish on my hard drive. It turns out that I would finish it, and then go on to write 29 additional stories. Thirteen of which are part of my Fifty Something Teenager (FST) series. I started the FST series without a grand plan, but a vague notion of a series of interconnected tales with the same characters. Now, this series is easily the most popular of my stories.

In total, all of my stories account for 500,000+ words, 225 chapters, written on 1,300+ pages. While these numbers pale in comparison to many of the very prolific authors on the site, I am happy with them given that I wasn't sure if the first story would have even been completed over three years ago.

This short post is both a pat-on-the-back to myself, but more importantly, a huge, heart-felt, Thank You to everyone who has read, rated, and sent email on the two-and-half dozen tales that are now part of my collection.

Thanks again and happy reading!

-DF

I am well into new story in three parts that is currently over 100 pages (~40K words) after part two. However, in the past few weeks I received a few emails asking if more of the Fifty Something Teenager (FST) series is coming.

When I finished the first draft of part two of the longer story, I decided to change gears and do another FST. The first draft of FST#10 is done. Now it needs several rounds editing. I hope to start publishing the latest FST sometime early next week! Stay tuned.

-DF

After publishing a story I add it to a spreadsheet where I track various metrics (e.g., the title, number of pages, number of words, character names used). With the recent publication of Study Abroad (overall my 24th story, the ninth in the Fifty Something Teenager series) I reached a milestone: over 1,000 pages written in published stories.

While that total is a drop in the bucket compared to the many prolific authors here on SOL, it's not bad for someone who only writes occasionally, and whose first story was published just over two years ago on a lark!

< Pat on the back />

Thanks for reading. Carry on.

I published my first story here on SoL in October 2020. It was a lark. Could I could create a coherent tale? It was my first attempt at writing fiction. Since then, I've gotten the bug and have published nineteen stories on SoL. Tomorrow I will start publishing Story #20 - The Boss. In all, I've written over 300K words (~750 pages) across my first nineteen stories. A decent beginning after starting from scratch and learning through trial-and-error!

Thanks to everyone that has read and provided feedback on my previous works. All feedback is really appreciated. I am very happy with some my the stories, while others were more experimental and I don't think they turned out as well. :)

I think the tale to-be-started tomorrow will be on the well-received end of the scale. I look forward to getting this latest story online and hearing from you!

Thanks again!

February 1, 2022

As I wrote some of my earlier stories I had an idea in mind that I would return to the same characters for additional tales. However, other than the two very short Donny stories (Donny's Tribulations and Donny's Triumph) that were written to explore dealing with emotional pain and loss, I have not gone back to the same characters or story line. Until now. I recently published The Student Teacher and am now wrapping up a second story with Thomas and his return to the 1980s as a fifty-something accountant turned teenager.

I decided to make these stories a series - The Fifty Something Teenager. In my mind these stories are smaller, independent, one-chapter tales that are centered around Thomas and his do-over in the 80s. Creating these stories as vignettes in a series allows for the freedom to jump between characters and places more freely than tying everything together in one longer published work. It also means I can write and publish the stories more frequently as each will likely clock in at under 10K words.

Thanks to all that have written comments and feedback on The Student Teacher. Stay tuned for the publication of The Spring Musical in the next day or two. Any future comments or ideas about the series The Fifty Something Teenager are welcome.

Thanks for reading.

-DF