Slumming
My wife and I made up, you'll be delightted to know. Not by running into each other's arms and declaring our undying love; but the arguments subsided, other things came along, and by the end of the week we were not only in the same room as each other, but sitting next to each other. Watching Coronation Street.
Somehow or other, I finished my short story for Writing Magazine's horror competition. It came in at 1,900 words, so I've got to trim 200 words. But that should be easy. I like tightening and polishing. What does concern me a bit is the fact that it's still a first draft which I'm sending in. Nobody else has looked at it. My writing class doesn't start again until next Monday, and in any case, they wouldn't read it on the night. And I can't think of anyone else to show it to. Besides which, the deadline is in May. I haven't got time to do anything drastic.
It owes a lot- an awful lot- to M.R. James's The Mezzotint. I needed an idea, so I pinched his. My story is more like an updated Mezzotint, and I'm not sure that I really made the idea my own. I always thought that The Mezzotint fizzled out at the end, and it's ironic that my ending is similar, because I couldn't think of any other way to end it. But I was determined to enter this competition.
It bothers me, too, that you don't really get to know the protagonists that well. Again like M.R. James; they are 'detectives' trying to solve a mystery, so you don't learn a lot about their inner psychology. Only the supernatural incidents which occur in the story, and what causes them. Maybe I'm slumming it.
I was writing in a rush trying to meet this deadline. I didn't have anything else to hand suitable. It's one of the drawbacks of competitions. If you only had more time...I keep promising myself that, the very next project I start, I'll write biographies for the characters, but I never seem able to do it. Somehow, it always seems like a chore. If I try it before I write the first draft, very often that kills the project. I lose heart and give up. And afterwards...well, you've written the thing, what do you need a biography for?
I'm sure I could be more succesful if I could only revise what I've already written. Instead of which, though, I want to go onto something else.
Like the current short story competition run by Chalk The Sun ( http://chalkthesun.co.uk or http://www.makingcollierswoodhappy.org.uk/ ). Write a 200 word story on the theme of Games by May 10th. I'm tempted. The challenge of fitting in a story in 200 words. I'm put off slightly by the fact that you have to perform the story. At a story Slam. I'm not a performer, I don't like my own spoken voice, which is one of the reasons I took to writing. I suppose it's cheating to get someone else to read it out for you; not that I know anybody else who would.
First things first, though, I need an idea.
Somehow or other, I finished my short story for Writing Magazine's horror competition. It came in at 1,900 words, so I've got to trim 200 words. But that should be easy. I like tightening and polishing. What does concern me a bit is the fact that it's still a first draft which I'm sending in. Nobody else has looked at it. My writing class doesn't start again until next Monday, and in any case, they wouldn't read it on the night. And I can't think of anyone else to show it to. Besides which, the deadline is in May. I haven't got time to do anything drastic.
It owes a lot- an awful lot- to M.R. James's The Mezzotint. I needed an idea, so I pinched his. My story is more like an updated Mezzotint, and I'm not sure that I really made the idea my own. I always thought that The Mezzotint fizzled out at the end, and it's ironic that my ending is similar, because I couldn't think of any other way to end it. But I was determined to enter this competition.
It bothers me, too, that you don't really get to know the protagonists that well. Again like M.R. James; they are 'detectives' trying to solve a mystery, so you don't learn a lot about their inner psychology. Only the supernatural incidents which occur in the story, and what causes them. Maybe I'm slumming it.
I was writing in a rush trying to meet this deadline. I didn't have anything else to hand suitable. It's one of the drawbacks of competitions. If you only had more time...I keep promising myself that, the very next project I start, I'll write biographies for the characters, but I never seem able to do it. Somehow, it always seems like a chore. If I try it before I write the first draft, very often that kills the project. I lose heart and give up. And afterwards...well, you've written the thing, what do you need a biography for?
I'm sure I could be more succesful if I could only revise what I've already written. Instead of which, though, I want to go onto something else.
Like the current short story competition run by Chalk The Sun ( http://chalkthesun.co.uk or http://www.makingcollierswoodhappy.org.uk/ ). Write a 200 word story on the theme of Games by May 10th. I'm tempted. The challenge of fitting in a story in 200 words. I'm put off slightly by the fact that you have to perform the story. At a story Slam. I'm not a performer, I don't like my own spoken voice, which is one of the reasons I took to writing. I suppose it's cheating to get someone else to read it out for you; not that I know anybody else who would.
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