Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Yesterday was all about editing, or as a professor once said in class, "writing is rewriting."  That's no lie.  This story's getting a healthy does of attention.  As stated before, I know I have the start of something good with this short story, however the true work and challenges lie in the revisions. I wish my writing was perfect from day one, but that never happens. Revise, revise, revise.

When I read the story aloud, several spots came of as awkward or repetitive phrasing. That killed the flow of what I wanted to convey so that needs mad smoothing. I insisted on completing the read through/revisions one page at a time.  When I was done, I reread my notes, then gave it an overnight cool off period.  

I didn't get to my second story as I would have liked to.  I'm going to have to slow my pace and ambitions.  If I did a paragraph yesterday, it would make my slacking off a little more digestible.  Not write a great paragraph, but an ok paragraph. I'm making it a priortiy to get things done today.  If I have to cut the TV off and no games, that's what I will do.

Well, Well, What Have We Here?

Yesterday I looked over and edited a short story I wrote a few months ago. Did it need editing?  Oh yes it did. I had way too many grammatical mistakes. I started with one read/edit where I only looked for my typos only with a pen and a highlighter.

Originally, I presented this story to others in my writing seminar as was our assignment. We read each other's stories and gave feedback. For my part, I should have placed far more effort into this project to eliminate the typos. One or two typos would be a mistake.  Several typos and tense mixing looks completely haphazard and is the hallmark of the complete novice. In other words, a hot mess.  For the record I have graduate classes under my belt. There are high and reasonable expectations placed upon graduate students and their materials. I don't find my typos a simple mistake, but rather me not getting my writing up to par with my graduate studies skills.

Did I think I wrote a good story? Yes I did, but it went no further than me getting feedback about it. I thought I worked on a story that was a bit stronger than my usual writing, and more direct using the various exercises I learned in my writing seminar. What I should have done is put a little more effort into the final presented product. This would have made for a more polished presentation in regards to the story.  I think the idea,  the mood, and the energy that my short story conveyed, however I fumbled the delivery.

Initially I thought, while editing,  "I'm too close to the material to see it as something I could work towards improving." This was an odd statement, as I've written papers and edited them within the same week. What did was capitalize on my procrastinating skills, which is to say I didn't think it was important enough to do the revisions immediately. Yes a couple of months gives me fresh eyes to revise, but had I corrected the story, say a week from time of the feedback, the story could have been shelved, then tweaked once again. I wasted time.

I did work on other projects, but not at a frequency I think I'm capable of.  Other stories need writing and other stories need attention.  My blog needs postings.  I can say this is the topic of today, which means I'm writing once more. Needless to say, you can take someone out of graduate classes, but you can't take the graduate studies out of the person. It's time to honor those skills with a fresh revisions, and  continued writing. That would make me a lapsed hot mess.  This has been good writing today.

12/30/11 - Small Victories

Today was a day to run some errands. Promised myself to look up air purifiers to take with me back home. I had one but it died on me and ever since then my allergies and congestion have beaten me in the face. On top of that I wanted to help Mom with a few supplies. It's not bad but a new purifier costs a lot of money so I hope it does what it says it can. Otherwise I think 2012 will be rough.

I need to make sure I do a blog post. I regret not typing something earlier (it's 11:52 PM). I do know that before bed I want a written commitment. Did write a few lines for the current short story down today. It is not a loss, but rather a small victory.

The Short Story Part 5: Tips

Before the editing process began I got some good feedback from friends on this short story.  As I stated before, I never gave up on revisions to the text. I learned  more about  writing  since I penned this story, and I believe that I can make a good story better. The ultimate goal is to make the story publishable.

The feedback I received concerned issues with tenses (I mixed past and present), conflict resolution with the characters/narrative, and trimming/adding parts of the story.  All of which is both necessary to address and daunting.  The plot itself does not need to be made over, and will remain intact for the most part.    Still when I have a day to myself, I will commence to properly rewriting.

The Short Story Part 4: Theme

This morning I woke up to thinking about the theme of my short story.  I jotted down some notes this morning before I dozed back off into dreamland.  I'm glad I did.  When I have more time I will jot down more notes.

In regards to theme.  Themes are embodied in the desires of our protagonists, therefore I have several questions I need to ask myself:

• What does my protagonist want?
• What does my protagonist need?
• What stands in the way of the protagonist getting what he wants/needs?
• What happens if he doesn't get what he wants or needs (the stakes)?  

These questions will help me shape the theme, and know the character a little better.  Also every story needs some risks, or stakes.  If they don't have them, we won't care for the characters or outcome.

The Short Story Part 3: Small Victories

Yesterday was a discombobulated mess, however, I did managed to get a few things done-story wise.  Not bad.  Don’t want to take these moments for granted.  They are small victories and I appreciate them.  Now I need to keep my momentum going.   

Another aspect of the story I wish to try and that’s some research.   For this I need to go look up a few things.

Did some free association with some scenes and dialogue.  Wondering if it fits or not.  Willing to take it further to get it into shape.   Not afraid at this moment.   It’s rather rewarding.   Also looking at the genre of the story.  I would classify it as a literary story, but I wonder where does this story fit in with what I want to read.  If there were other literary elements I did like, say, black humor, would I still like it?  

Trying a few new elements with the descriptions.  I hope this pays off, as I rather like what I read.   If need be, I will cut it loose.  Will save it for something else. 

Did go back and observe some tense structures.  I am switching between past and present.   I should try the story in the present.  Keep it that way. 

Wrote out some dialog exchanges between the characters.  Will have to cut it.  It’s too long.  I know this because the characters are essentially talking heads.  I did need to write it out in order to get to the heart of the story.  At least I lost my fear of cutting things.   

The Short Story Part 2: Editing

Let me say thank you to some awesome people who gave me some feedback on this story.   Feedback from others is crucial at some point to allow us to see another angle to any idea or story.   

I did some light editing last night.  I looked for typos and formatting errors.  Also cut out a few pages.  I'm going to duplicate the file ("save as") and revise from there.    This is but a simple step.

This morning I had a few ideas for the intro paragraph, and that meant writing a few paragraphs out and leaving them for a later date.  Also some ideas for a couple of dialogue adjustments and scenes came to mind.  Jotted them down on a separate document to possibly add later.  

When I make another sweep at editing, I will definitely look at the characters' voices.  There are two distinct characters and four who speak in this story.  Each needs to feel like they have a specific voice.  I need to make sure I'm able to give them their due.  

By the way did I mention that writing is rewriting?  If I haven't, now you know.