finish writing a story

not to drag it out too long. just get the damn thing down on paper, then get some distance from it, and THEN come back with your editing pencil.

i didn’t even realize i had this done because it feels like i can go on editing forever…but when i showed the last draft to my writing group, they all congratulated me for finishing a story!

I have made progress on the story, and now I have found a new deadline: a short story contest! (due June 30)

i was putting stuff away before going to bed, moving around the room, getting it in order. and then suddenly i had a flash of an idea for my story. what a wonderful feeling. maybe my brain is working on it behind the scenes.

I’ve gotten some work done on a short story (5 pages). Thank goodness for workshops!

But here’s my big epiphany for this week. One that many people everywhere already know: despite the fact this is a creative endeavor, there cannot be any spontaneity to the activity of writing. It has to scheduled. If I plan to REALLY write this year, the only way it’s going to get done is if I decide when to do it ahead of time.

Will be taking a 4 week workshop to do this (and to focus on plot, which is my problem area). The workshop starts in 2 weeks, and we got an assignment over email today.

I’d like to incorporate part of the story I started and a section of my NaNo novel into the assignment instead of discarding them like I usually do with partial works.

contrived constraints, such as artificial deadlines, are useful for scattered minds. i would know, so i’m giving myself one.

driving down a long dark stretch of highway i let my imagination loose to see where it would go (and to help me stay awake). i realized that the one thing i have become good at it is writing about setting. not as glamorous as dialogue or kinetic as plot. for now that is where i am going to start.