Getting There

Over the past few days I did a little re-write on my contribution for the anthology. It was good to leave it to one side for a few weeks and to let it float around in my head for a while. I would definitely be expecting at least another couple of re-writes before I have to tackle the dreaded proofread.

All in all I'm happy with how the story has come together and all within the word limit. Spending time in prep has been a worthwhile exercise. Short stories are a format that I will write in again as I've found it very enjoyable.
Next step over the coming weeks will be to get together with other group members and start working on another re-write based on thoughts some of them may have about it and hopefully helping out with one or two of the other stories if needed.

We will also be chatting about other things, like possible titles for the eventual book and the possibility of posting short extracts from the pieces we are all busy on right now.

Though it has been quite of late here there will be plenty more to come very soon.

Noel's writing blog.

First Draft ~ Cripple

I spent much of the past week writing the first draft of my contribution to the anthology. So much for stating I'd try to knock it out in one writing session that would render me zombie-like.
I started at pace, knocking out a third in about five hours before the dawn approached and I had somewhere to be.
When I returned to it, the same blood wasn't flowing through my creative juices so instead of trying to hinder progress, I left it until I had time to turn things over in my mind. The story was the better for it. I paced myself, took time to think about what I was writing. Structurally, I adhered to what I had prepped for myself. Structure is nothing unless you fill in the gaps in between, and I was glad it took the week, wrote in leisure at my own pace, in times of my choosing and to me, that's important and I'm lucky to have that freedom.

I came up 500 words short than my target. That's fine, I've plenty of re-writing to do. From the first draft I now have a blue print to work from. Given it's only 15 pages in length in it's current state, I'll print it out next week and save some of the sight I have left. I'll work from a print out as I set about fine tuning it. There's plenty of time to return to it a few more times and I intend to. I'm excited I've tried something new, I've wrote short stories but they were all filed away completed in first draft form never to be re-visited.

I'm happy with what I've wrote. I wrote it in the first person. I find it easier when writing a character to step into their shoes. I can still step in more but that will require more work. It's possible I'll do it but that won't become apparent until I've read it a number of times again. If it's anything like the process of writing a book I'm sure it will change quite a bit. This time though, I won't have the battle of deciding which words to delete.

This time I need a few more...