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Jan. 3rd, 2007
progression
Jan. 3rd, 2007 05:11 pmI wrote my first viable/publishable short story in, um, 2003. (I think.) I wrote it and a novel that year.
I bled this story onto the page. It was so hard to write. And it's a simple little story. Not terribly exciting, not much happens. And it actually took months to write.
Life was tough from the mid-1990's into the early 2000's. When I sat down to write my first actual short story in about a decade in 2002, it was a major breakthrough. The fact that I wrote something with a beginning, and middle, and (praise the powers that be!) and end was a huge accomplishment for me.
And this isn't to say I hadn't written during that decade. I had written. I had written a lot. But it was research papers, and ethnographies, and critiques of Derrida, and other such materials. I mean, I was writing the equivalent of a short story a week, or more, in academic papers, but it was all academic. When I sat down to write a 3,500 word short story, I was stymmied. But I did it. And I've written more short stories since. Some of them have even been published by some lovely people. ( Hi![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jlundberg.)
And I still have this first story. I have to admit, I'm not so good on the submissions. Part of this is due to response times and part of this is because I'll let a story sit around for way too long after it's been rejected before I boot it back out the door.
This story in question tends to do well at markets. No one buys, but it gets a lot of positive feedback. And that's always a fine thing. But I haven't looked over it for a very long time. And so this afternoon I took a peek at it. And you know what? I found a problem with the ending. I may have fixed it. I am not sure yet. But I saw the problem, and knew why it was a problem, and if my now self could have been with my past self when the story was written, I could have said, "Look, your ending is incomplete here, based on the beginning and rest of the story. See?" And then when I tacked on an ending that seemed okay, I could have said, "Meh, you're getting deep and moralistic here. Not good, not useful. The story is about entertaining the reader, not changing the world. You write fiction. You're not an anthropologist anymore, out to save humanity. Save that stuff for your blog, if you must write it."
So I changed the ending. We'll see how the little story does. Based on the responses, I do believe that though it's not the greatest story ever written, and I can do much better now, it is publishable, if I find the right market.
This is, of course, quite the squee moment. I am better than I was. I have improved. I can look at my work and see the flaws I didn't see not so long ago. And it's a good feeling.
I wonder what I'll think of what I write this year in another few years or so. "Oh, you poor dear. Now, if you had just known...".
I bled this story onto the page. It was so hard to write. And it's a simple little story. Not terribly exciting, not much happens. And it actually took months to write.
Life was tough from the mid-1990's into the early 2000's. When I sat down to write my first actual short story in about a decade in 2002, it was a major breakthrough. The fact that I wrote something with a beginning, and middle, and (praise the powers that be!) and end was a huge accomplishment for me.
And this isn't to say I hadn't written during that decade. I had written. I had written a lot. But it was research papers, and ethnographies, and critiques of Derrida, and other such materials. I mean, I was writing the equivalent of a short story a week, or more, in academic papers, but it was all academic. When I sat down to write a 3,500 word short story, I was stymmied. But I did it. And I've written more short stories since. Some of them have even been published by some lovely people. ( Hi
jlundberg.) And I still have this first story. I have to admit, I'm not so good on the submissions. Part of this is due to response times and part of this is because I'll let a story sit around for way too long after it's been rejected before I boot it back out the door.
This story in question tends to do well at markets. No one buys, but it gets a lot of positive feedback. And that's always a fine thing. But I haven't looked over it for a very long time. And so this afternoon I took a peek at it. And you know what? I found a problem with the ending. I may have fixed it. I am not sure yet. But I saw the problem, and knew why it was a problem, and if my now self could have been with my past self when the story was written, I could have said, "Look, your ending is incomplete here, based on the beginning and rest of the story. See?" And then when I tacked on an ending that seemed okay, I could have said, "Meh, you're getting deep and moralistic here. Not good, not useful. The story is about entertaining the reader, not changing the world. You write fiction. You're not an anthropologist anymore, out to save humanity. Save that stuff for your blog, if you must write it."
So I changed the ending. We'll see how the little story does. Based on the responses, I do believe that though it's not the greatest story ever written, and I can do much better now, it is publishable, if I find the right market.
This is, of course, quite the squee moment. I am better than I was. I have improved. I can look at my work and see the flaws I didn't see not so long ago. And it's a good feeling.
I wonder what I'll think of what I write this year in another few years or so. "Oh, you poor dear. Now, if you had just known...".
