Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Stuck in the middle with two ... short stories

We're halfway through the month, a couple of weeks out from NaNoWriMo. So what's shaking bacon?

Not much. I've been bouncing between two short stories. The sci-fi one I stopped writing at 2300 words because the characters weren't working for me. The main character wasn't personally invested in the action, and since I'm not writing "The Great Gatsby" I need to rethink the POV. I don't want to kill the story because I love the setting. So it's time for a rewrite.

The other short story is at 2400 words. It's a dark one. I've been writing the story off and on for the last month. I'm handling this one like "British Guiana." I don't want to take it too seriously, even though it's one of the creepiest things I've ever created.

I'm learning about my process as I work on these two stories. I started the sci-fi story with a setting in mind. The horror story started with characters. I'm discovering I have a much easier time when I start with a character. The setting suggests a certain kind of character, but the possibilities seem to be endless and I just keep asking myself: Yes, but what do you want to say?

That's me. Making stuff harder than it needs to be since the day I was born.

2 comments:

Elizabeth Twist said...

It's always interesting to reflect on process. No matter how many insights I have, I always want to try things the hard way, just to see.

Folly Blaine said...

I like to think of it as "Hope springs eternal." :) Maybe this time will be different? Maybe the hard way will be the right way just this once.