I am tired from a long week of work and am still trying to figure out how to incorporate daily writing into my schedule, but I am doing it. I've raised the bar this summer since I'm also working on a short fiction collection and, so far, I've read through some material I wrote a few years ago that I'd like to work into a new piece of short fiction. I haven't decided yet whether it will be part of the collection I'm creating or whether it will need to stand alone. I'm hoping it will work for the collection because that means I will need only to create one story to complete it.
Now, that might sound like I've got an easy summer in front of me. I don't. The other three stories are in various stages of completion. They're all at least at the second draft stage. The problem is, once I start ripping apart stories I write, they seem to become confused and I don't know what to do with them.
A few years ago I participated in a year-long fiction workshop to workshop a long short story I wrote. I like the original better. So, when I get to that one, I'll need to put all the versions side by side and really think about what it needs. And what it wants. Two of the stories are complete and about as good as they can get. One of them needs a new title, but I can't think of something better than I've got - and I don't like it.
I'm beginning with the new material. Then I'll go back through the other three stories. Finally, I'll write the new one. I think I have the subject, but I am still discerning the direction I'd like to go.
These stories are past their time to be collected and given to the world. And there's something exciting about settling in and completing this.
The Great Summer Writing Retreat of 2019 begins. One hundred days of writing unedited ideas and following a prompt to its sometimes illogical conclusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment