My Wayward Children
Outlined and started writing one of the two major essays that I've been trying so very hard to ignore for the last while. I suppose I should feel good about this, but I'm just feeling so ... lazy. Yes, that's a good word for it. Tomorrow I'll have to do much, much better.
I made something of an effort to get some of my short stories edited, but perhaps today just wasn't an editing day. I opened "I Breathe" and hacked off the last three scenes, and was shocked by the realization that this left the story at only 2,500 words. And while it has the potential to work as a short story, that's just entirely too short, to say the least. "Oh," I said. "Oh dear." Overwhelmed with the work that the story requires (can you say total rewrite? I knew you could), I closed the file.
Sent "Ohntai" to a friend who'd asked to see it, and it seems that there's nothing like having an audience to made the flaws in a story leap forward. Realized something rather major that the story needs. Opened the file, stared at the story with an irritated "Oh, it's you again" sort of feeling before closing it. Sigh.
Started something new, but have spent most of my time arguing with it over tense.
"Ooh," it says, "I'd be so lovely in present tense."
"Not writing another present tense story," I muttered back. "Two's enough for now, thanks." Then realized that I kept typing "is" instead of "was" and had to overhaul. This is a story that cannot afford to be flashy! But try getting it to agree...
And it is at this point that I realize that all non-writers who are reading this--and likely a good portion of the writers, too--think I'm totally crazy. They may have a point.
