What To Do...What To Do

Figured I'd be done with my short story by the end of last week. Now it's Tuesday into the following week and still not at the finish line.

I keep coming up with extra fodder, but it's getting closer to the end. Nearly at 10,000 words at this point. Don't know if it will be done by the time we leave for my nephew's graduation on Friday though. Shoot!

Now the crazy thing is waaaaay too long for a short story and too short for a novella. I'm either going to have to cut the living tar out of it or will need to figure out more fodder to add.

Is this a weird situation to be in or what?

I'm afraid there's too much to make a good cut of such an extreme, so the best thing may be for me to add. Only problem is that I don't want it to "sound" like I've made up a bunch of scenes just to get to a specific word count. That never really rings true and the reader can usually tell where the added material is mere fluff to feed the fatted calf.

Maybe what I should do is finish to my planned end then send it out for critique to the group with the request to notate any additional scene ideas they foresee for this situation. That may be cheating but fresh thoughts and ideas may be the catalyst I need to fully flesh this puppy out to novella length.

And all I set out to do was write a short story - gee!

Growing Legs

Got in another great day of writing.

Don't know how great the writing is yet, but it sure felt great getting thoughts into my computer. This is the most I've written in such a long time. I've already surpassed 6,000 words.

Yes, I can tell you're impressed. :-)

It's interesting that this started out as a short story idea and has taken off on wings of its own...or grown legs and run off without me...something like that.

The whole story concept has been really easy to write and is coming to me in droves, flowing onto the pages sometimes in ways that surprise me. That's the kind of writing I really enjoy, not the hours and days that drag by and you feel like you're trying to give birth and the baby got stuck a long time ago. That kind of writing is never fun, but it's still important to labor through it.

Because there's always a reward at the end.

Tonight we had critique group so I had to turn off the writing spigot and get ready to leave the house.

I gotta look halfway presentable. Don't want to scare my friends.

So we had a good time hanging, cussing and discussing writing and the one submission to critique. All the while I struggled to keep my head out of my story. I'm just kinda thankful in a weird way that I have this time to work on it.

That new job will eventually pop up on the radar and it will be back to work. In the meantime, I'll try and take advantage of as much time as possible to write.

While I have the opportunity.

Unleashing the Dogs

Today is an exciting day! I've started writing again.

With everything going on of late, I've been a little focused on other things at the moment and haven't done any writing for months. Creativity flows with difficulty when one's mind is filled with concern.

For weeks now the writing bug has been hacking at my brain with a toothpick, greatly desirous of worming his way into the hippocampus to unlock my subconscious and release this building energy. After a splendid morning at church singing my lungs out, a lovely lunch provided by my thoughtful son, and then a well deserved nap, I awoke yesterday afternoon with renewed energy and vigor.

And also a really bizarre storyline begging to be unleashed like a pack of sled-dogs during the Iditarod.

So armed with several heart-pounding movie soundtracks, I've worked away on several pages to come up with the beginnings of a short story. The whole thing is still in its infancy, but I'm hoping that if I work diligently this week I'll coax it from the cocoon.

Who knows? Maybe this idea could eventually become the fodder for me to start novel number ten.

My critique group will shoot me.