Blog No. 242
Not too long ago, the exact date escapes me and I can’t find the will to look it up, I did a reading for Urban Farmhouse Press at the Riverside Library. It was part of a series where Urban Farmhouse invited authors from other publishers in the city to come and read. It was a cool event and I think they are planning something similar for the future. I hope they are at least. Either way, they are putting together an anthology with works from everyone who was involved with the series. Since I was one of those people, I am on that list. The word count is limited to under two-thousand words (which makes sense since there were a lot of folks involved) and that can be as much as a challenge as anything else in writing.
I’m in a place where I have a few stories sitting in saved files waiting for me to do something with them. One day they may be put into a collection, submitted to something, or who knows what else, but chances are they will need a rewrite before I’m happy with them. That’s the thing with getting better at something. All the stuff you id before becomes obsolete. The idea may still be good, but the writing certainly won’t be. I could take one of those ideas and do a rewrite and a quick second draft, but I also have a bunch of other ideas for stories I’d like to write. Since I find myself having trouble in that department (since so many other things have kept me sidetracked) and because this has a deadline, I’ve decided to write a new short story for this collection.
My hope was that the quick turnaround on such a short story would be a good kick-start and get the juices flowing. That way I’ll be able to finish the novella while I do the layout for the crime anthology. I have no idea when the novella will be released (new factors like financing have come into play) but I still want to do it. I’ve run into a slight issue with this short story plan, though. I started to write an idea that’s been kicking around in my head for a while, but two writing sessions in and I’m at fifteen-hundred words without the ending in sight. Even if I go back and cut like a mad man, I don’t think I’ll be able to get this story under two-thousand words.
So, now I have a story that I started that won’t be applicable to the task. I’ll have to start something else (which is fine since I have plenty more ideas) but that would leave this one hanging. I have to either decide to put this one on hold to get the other one done as soon as possible, or to finish this one and start the next one right after. Either way, I’m postponing the novella, but that is kind of why I started with this in the first place. I don’t want to leave a started story, but it may end up being rather long. I still have a month before the deadline, so I should have plenty of time to do both, but I said that about the novella when I started the crime story. I’ll have to worry about it the next time I sit down to do some writing. Maybe the muses will decide for me.
Ben Van Dongen 