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A Week Without Writing

2/23/2015

Advertisement first, then blog:

My short story "Weaver's Trade", is republished in Let it Snow. It's set in the early 1600s in an unnamed New England colony. Following the death of his family (50% of colonists died in the first year, sometimes the whole colony was wiped out) the weaver rents his house to strangers. It was my Christmas story several years ago, and it won second place in the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable the next year. The anthology is full of wonderful winter stories. You can find Let it Snow at Amazon: http://bit.ly/BWRLetItSnow

I missed my blog deadline last week because by the time I was supposed to be writing it I didn't have enough energy to hit the keys with any accuracy. Sometimes being a writer can be hard physical work.

The week before I was to write and post, I did three days of work at my museum job. That is paid, and if I don't make some money I will have to stop eating.

I attendee two writers events. One was a day long presentation at a library, an hour's drive away in the snow. The other was my critique group meeting which comes at the end of a day of work.

On Wednesday I took a group of school kids back to the 18th century and on Thursday a group of adults to the 19th. There were the regular sheep tasks. All this would have been fine if the temperature hadn't been hovering above 0. Except for the library which was toasty, all this was done in some degree of cold. During the week I was trying to dash off 1000 words each day.

When I got home from critique group on Monday night I collapsed, and have pretty much been that way ever since.

The up side is that everything I did, was something I love and wanted to do. I couldn't possibly said "No" to any of these things.

I submitted a story to my critique group and was waiting for their verdict. It is one I wrote for a specific publication and really want to have it published. They could have told me it was rotten and I ought to toss it. I knew it was incomplete, but I didn't quite know what to do with it. More background? More character development? More plot? As usual they came through for me.

Today I was awake enough to make the necessary changes to the story. Now it sits for a bit and then gets a read from someone else. Then off it goes.

It hasn't been all rushing around and meeting the public. I have two stories coming out in anthologies. The first will be out by the time you read this, the second sometime in March. Maybe for my birthday. Needless to say I am very pleased with that. More on the March one closer to publication.

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Building a Short Story

2/10/2015

4 Comments

Every author uses a different set of steps to get to the final work.

Practically the first thing an author you have just been introduced to will ask you is “Pantser or plotter?”

The question means “Do you plot everything out before you start writing, or do you fly by the seat of your pants?” Every writer does both but most writers are willing to put themselves into one category or the other. I happily identify myself as a pantser, though I prefer call myself a “blank pager.” I spend maybe three times as long thinking the problems through as I do putting words on paper. And I do it as I go along. But if I write it all down, and have finished the story in my mind, then I am done with it, and I will never finish the writing.

The story I am writing now was all done except for a single plot point. I had struggled with the identity of the killer, how to use the other characters to best advantage, and how to tell the story of the setting without telling too much (as opposed to showing) or drowning the story in the place and time. Then, when it was nearly done, I still had to figure out how the protagonist solved it. Two simple sentences, one near the beginning and one near the end were all I needed. As often happens, the answer came in the early morning before I climbed out of my warm bed. So right after walking the dog, I put the two sentences in their places.

I now have about 3000 words on paper, but I am not done.

I am big on research and pick topics that take a lot of it. I do it before I start; I do it as I go along; I do it after I have written the end. I still have to figure out if Ned could light a cigarette in 1850, or if he could smoke a cigarette at all. Since I am using a real event, I need to know who was there and what they did and what the outcome was.

Oh, yes, and I struggle with names. Poor Ned was Ted for the first half. I still have to decide which one he really is. One funny tid-bit about naming. I come up with first names separate from last names. Nicknames come even later. When I had a name for one of the characters, first and last, I realized that when I called her by her nick name, she bore the rather unique name of an acquaintance. Said acquaintance would not be at all pleased with sharing anything at all with that particular character. So I changed her last name and still have to go back and make sure it is changed everywhere. Glory be for search and replace. Except the last name was the name of a common object, I can see sending the MS off with the following sentence. “She went to the sideboard and rang the dinner Adams.”

I’ve got a couple more hours of work on it then it goes to my critique group who will tell me things like, “the motive is not strong enough” or “the clue is too weak.” I may even get both “Too much setting” and “not enough setting.”

Finally I have to decide what to do about their comments. Some are easy fixes, like changing an adjective. Some don’t need fixing. Most often I find the change needs to be in a different spot from the comment. When John says the main character isn't strong enough, I have to fix that.

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A Week Without Writing

Building a Short Story

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