Cat's Eye and Agate

Confession: When I get a headache, I am far too ready to take Advil for it.

Today was the Fall 2008 24 Hour Short Story Contest. Here's the topic:

The cast iron pot was blackened and warped, but had provided years of delicious concoctions. Movement caught her eye through the cracked window. She turned her head, but saw only red, orange, yellow and brown leaves racing by in the fierce wind. She shivered as cold air leaked through the window's cracks, and leaned down to stoke the fire.

Squinting at her recipe book, she scratched the mole on her nose. The fourth ingredient was always the hardest to find...

Well, I've already written a story on Hansel and Gretel for this contest, and it didn't win, so that idea is out. And you know that half the stories are going to be Wicked Witch related. "Oh my God! The fourth ingredient is children. CHILDREN!!!!!"

So I wanted to avoid that. But at the same time, there's no denying that the main character is a witch-type figure. C'mon, iron pot, mysterious ingredients, rickety old cottage. She even has a mole! So at the same time, it would sort of go against the spirit of the contest not to pay homage to that stereotype in some way.

I knew that I needed to have a second person in my story, and I thought a young boy would fit the bill. Something would have to bring him to her door. No kid wants to go to the witch's cottage, even if she's not a witch, so it would have to be something close to his heart.

I chose marbles, since they could be used as a weapon (to break windows, perhaps), and because they would be something dear to their owner. Wait... why would they be used as a weapon if he likes them so much? Better throw in an older brother, would could use the occasion to torment the old woman and his sibling at the same time. So the younger boy goes after his marbles and meets the old lady.

Now back to her. What is she doing? She's making something, but what? Well, it was either mundane or magical. Given the choice, I'd rather have magical. Okay, fine. What's the most counterintuitive choice in this situation? Nothing evil... how about medicine?

For whom? Well, she has a sick husband. Now I'm setting the stereotype on its ear. Sure, she's a witch, but she's a good witch. She doesn't live alone, she's caring for someone.

At this point, I wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally plagiarize Terry Pratchett, whose many Discworld books on witches are among my favorites. I had to go a different direction.

So the boy comes in, and he's terrified. Gradually, he understands that this woman isn't a witch, that she's just a normal old woman, like his own grandmother, and he treats her with respect. Respect... or pity? Probably the latter would be easier to achieve, because in her old age, she probably would look kind of pitiful.

Well, there's my story. But it still lacks an ending. The witch needs to get her last ingredient. What could it be? What about something intangible, like the pity of a child? This is magic, after all. Why couldn't that be part of the recipe?

Hmmmm... but why would she be making it if she didn't know the boy was coming? I could either give her foresight to see that he was coming, or have the medicine be less effective, but still somewhat useful, without that ingredient. Better to go with the latter, there are fewer complications.

So when the boy comes around, she somehow uses that emotion in her medicine and gives it to her husband. But we save the reveal until the very end, so the reader is convinced, right along with the boy, that she's nothing special.

That was my thought process for the story. The first draft came in at 916 words, and with a word limit of 850, I had to do some trimming. Luckily I was able to do to the cuts in the language and not lose anything of substance. And start to finish, it took me only two hours. Not bad. I know I say it a lot, but I should do this more often.

I really work best to a deadline. That's why the NaNoWriMo, even my own fake version, will spur me on better than anything else.


Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 2
• Pending: 2

Where's my follow-through?

Confession: I have to consciously remember to stand up for myself sometimes.

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Hitches a Ride" - 1,245 words (Estimated completion 14%)
• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 100%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

What's wrong with me? I had such a great Sunday of writing, and then yesterday and today I've accomplished nothing. Of course, at the moment I've got a killer headache, but I felt great this morning when I was at Panera doing the crossword.

I need to set myself a goal to do every day. 250 words. That's just about a page of text, maybe less, and I can definitely crank that out. Maybe once I've done the first 250, the next 1000 will be easier.

Of course, as I've mentioned before, follow-through has always been one of my weak spots. Maybe that's why I've succeeded with things like the 24 Hour Short Story contest, which I always manage to finish in 4-6 hours. Maybe that's why my most successful projects have been short stories, and the only longer works that have gone anywhere have been series of collected short stories.

Knowing that about myself, perhaps I can use that to my advantage. If I can conceive of my projects as a series of shorter ones, with their own intermediate goal and payoff, perhaps that will be the incentive I need.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 2
• Pending: 2

Results, but no progress

Confession: I have the ability to be bored, looking for something to do, and totally ignore chores at the same time.

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Hitches a Ride" - 1,245 words (Estimated completion 14%)
• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 100%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

First off, good news! A little more than a month ago, I wrote a story entitled "Hattie Donnelly's New Doll" for the Writers Weekly 24 Hour Short Story Contest. The results came out today, and I once again won Honorable Mention. Out of the eight times I have entered the contest, I have maintained a 50/50 win/loss ratio, assuming that honorable mention is a win.

I do have to count it as a rejection in one sense, however. My tally below of submissions and rejections is designed to count publication, and only the top three places in this contest get that honor. So I've bumped my rejection counter up by one. Perhaps I should put an asterisk next to it.

Funny... I went to Greenport yesterday. The last time I did that, I came home to find that "Dolly Hobbles" had been accepted. That place really is my lucky charm.

Sadly, I didn't do anything else constructive today. I think that I succeed most with my writing under just enough adversity to put time pressure on me, but not enough so that I have no time at all to write. This is something I will have to address if I ever quit my job to have a full time writing career. In such a situation, I couldn't afford to slack off.

That's still far, far in the future, however. For now, I just need to get up tomorrow morning and do my thing like always. Maybe get another 500 words of Ferian finished. After all, if I can get the next Ferian chapter done, plus the next 24 hour contest at the end of this month, I'll be back on track for my one-story-a-month pledge.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 2
• Pending: 2
  

The Railroad as Metaphor

Confession: I find myself turning everything that happens to me into a narrative in my head.

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 95%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

First, for Ferian Fetlock fans, fear not! (I like alliteration.) I took a nice long Ramble tonight, and figured out a way around my last remaining stumbling block. (The coachman! Of course! Why didn't I think about it before?) I left the outline at 95% because there are still a few loose ends to tie up, timing and the like, but I don't anticipate much of a problem (fingers crossed, there).

After listening to a bit of Neko Case (the same album I listened to when I finished the first Ferian in Greenport, back in early July--see this post for a reminder), I took a nice long logical look at my story.

1. I know where I'm starting from.
2. I know where the ending is.

It's the middle bit that's tricky.

I think that's the case in all stories. When you think of a story, you either think of how it starts, or what happens. In fact, I challenge anyone to start a story in the middle effectively. Oh sure, there's the whole in medias res thing where you start in the middle of the action. But that just makes the middle of the chronology the beginning of the narrative, and the beginning of the chronology the middle of the narrative. If that's confusing, it's probably because I just walked seven miles.

Essentially, the process of plotting a story, for me, is the process of making the middle of the story from either end. It reminds me of the Transcontinental Railroad, which was built from west to east and east to west at the same time, and they just hoped it lined up in the middle. The nice thing about writing is that it's much, much easier to go back and redo parts of it than it would be for a railroad.

I currently plan to spend part of this weekend back in Greenport, working on the actual writing of the story. I doubt I'll finish, which will mean yet another month where my story of the month is finished the month after, but so long as it's finished, I'm not going to worry. And since this episode in Ferian's career comprises two stories/chapters, I might have my entry for September finished early.

Huh... I just notice that the next 24 hour short story contest is September 27th, which means I might (gasp) be ahead of the game going into October. Of course, I'd better finish the current Ferian arc before counting those chickens.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 3

New Contest

Confession: I had an amazing headache this morning. All better now, though. Well, mostly better.

Reading:

• "Toga Party" by John Barth
  

Writing:

• Untitled Dark Fantasy Project
• "Hattie Donnelly's Favorite Doll"
  

Revising:

• "Cora and the Sea"

Future Projects:

• Dairhenien's Library - Development
  
• Floorcraft - First rewrite of 1-5, first draft of 6-8
• Ferian Fetlock - Next chapter, "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold," followed by "Ferian Fetlock Takes a Wife."
  
• July 26th 24-hour Short Story
• "Motley" - Expansion
• "Fireworks and Earthworks" - 5% into first draft
  
• Untitled School Mistress Story

Unpublished Stories/Status

• "The Revenant" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "The Frost Fugling" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Leaves and Sunsets" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Motley" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Black Pudding" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "A Happy Ending" - 1st Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Illuminated" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Pictures of the Old Port" - 5th Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "What Price Stamps" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "A Cup of Coffee" / "Morning Tea" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted

Check out the topic for this season's 24 Hour Short Story Contest:

The bells on the door were still echoing as she stepped further into the old toy store. The owner winked at her and turned back to his black and white television set. She reached under the rack on the back wall and pulled it out. It was just where she'd left it last week. She approached the counter and put the item down.

He turned to her, grabbed the item with surprise, and said, "This is NOT for sale..."

It's a great topic, but I've had a harder time than usual in turning it into a story. I think the main reason is because the word limit this time is 900 words, which is about one scene's worth of writing. It's hard to tell an entire story in one scene, especially when all these other ideas kept intruding into my thought processes. I could have more easily written a 5,000 word story on this topic, within the time limit, than a 900 word one.

Still, I'm nearly done... it stands at 728 words right now, and I'm about to get to the climax. A little judicious editing and I'll send it in. (Not bad for three hours of work... I got the topic at 1pm, but I didn't actually sit down to write until 3pm, and since then I've also been to the grocery and eaten dinner.)

Okay, it's pretty much done. I'll step away from it and come back later on for a final check, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 2
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 0

A good writing day

Confession: I'm afraid something's going to happen to take this away.

Reading:

• Someplace to be Flying, by Charles de Lint
• The Last Command, by Timothy Zahn

Revising:

• "Cora and the Sea"

As you can see, I've taken "Ferian Fetlock" off the list. That's right, the first draft of "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse" is finished. It needs work, of course, but that's only to be expected.

The ending surprised me a little. Oh sure, I knew how I wanted to the story to end, and that's how it ended. The events that transpired are the same as I had planned. But I wasn't able to make that ending be an ending with closure. It was an ending with a hook for the next chapter. In other words, Ferian is refusing to shut up and be a short story. He wants to be a book.

As you can see, though, I didn't immediately put the next story, "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold," as my new writing project. Nor did I put up Dairhenien's Library, although that had been my original plan. You see, in two weeks I'm going to participate once more in the 24 Hour Short Story Contest, and I want to be in the right frame of mind for that.

My next major task is to actually start working on the "Cora and the Sea" revision, since my reading on August 11th is coming up fast. I don't know if that will take two whole weeks or not--hopefully not. So I need to decide on another project to fill in with in the mean time. Dairhenien might be a good bet, if nothing else to organize further the world building notes I've written. Or characters... yes, I should probably start working on characterization a bit more. I know many of the broad strokes, but none of the flavor.

Of course, any time I work on Dairhenien, there won't be an immediate payoff. I need to get "Illuminated" resubmitted, and perhaps another story too. Should I work on "The Revenant" some more? Do some more magazine research too?

It's doubly important to get more stories out because of the other thing that happened today: our girl "Dolly Hobbles" was accepted for publication by The Storyteller magazine. It is slated for the Jan/Feb/March 2009 issue of that publication.

As you can imagine, I'm thrilled. I immediately called my parents and a few others, and emailed everyone who has ever helped me in my writing. Now I'm going to have to put an Accepted counter down here too!

Publication Status:

• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
  

Research Time

Confession: I have the tendency to hide my failures and expose my successes. And then I have the nerve to wonder why people act like I succeed effortlessly. I can't have it both ways.

Reading:

• Master of the Cauldron, by David Drake
• 2008 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, Lauren Mosko, Editor

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse"

Revising:

• "Dolly Hobbles"

"Ferian Fetlock" is a comedy. Since the news yesterday of my grandmother's passing, I haven't been in what you might call the right frame of mind to do humorous writing, so after a nice long thoughtful blog yesterday, I'm going to regroup by doing some research today. I have purchased a bright shiny new copy of a book I should probably have just checked out from the library (if I didn't already have four items past due).

For someone who loves books as much as I do, I hate checking them out from libraries. The problem is that they make me give them back.

Today, I get the chance to put my metaphorical money where my metaphorical mouth is. I claimed on my previous post that I would accept comically low pay and copies in returns for publication. Well, my wish might be granted. This year's guide has a nice little section of small circulation publications that offer just that. Although not as well recognized or lucrative, they offer a better chance for new writers to get published, and build up that all important resume before aiming for the big leagues.

I have no problem with starting small, so that's what I'm going to work on today. I'm going to compile a list of magazines, along with their submission requirements (or where to get them). And as I get stories ready for submission, I'll pick the best and get it out to them.

You've got to understand that I think of this as work, as opposed to writing, which is fun. (Revision is about halfway in-between.) But it furthers the writing, and what better activity to engage in when my mind is not in a writing kind of place?

Before I start on that, though, a note on "Dolly Hobbles." It was written for that same 24 Hour Short Story Contest that I've mentioned several times in the past. It won honorable mention, a fact of which I was quite proud. But this is the first time that I've tried to revise one of those stories out of its churned-out-in-an-afternoon roots. The length of time that it takes to write a story means nothing outside of the context of the contest, and if it's a story worth salvaging, it deserves a long-term polish.

The trick is that the structure of the story was determined by a word count that also no longer applies. So this will be good practice at a different kind of revision--starting at the structural level and rewriting perhaps the entire story to fit that new structure. I get the feeling that when I finally make a serious attempt at a novel, that will be a skill that becomes very, very important.

The 10% Rule

Confession: When I finish a draft, I think it's perfect. It usually takes 3 days of objectivity to convince me I was completely wrong.

Reading:

• Master of the Cauldron, by David Drake

Writing:

• "Illuminated"

Yesterday I did my big push to edit the first 24 pages of "Illuminated." I got through about 20, which was great, because I'm going to completely rework the last scene preparatory to the final passages. Doing the revision helped in several ways, because I was able to start to work in some thematic elements that I didn't even think of while initially composing.

I can thank Stephen King for that... praise for On Writing is justified, in my opinion. He also mentioned one other rule, the 10% rule. Essentially, the idea is to cut out about 10% of the volume of a draft.

I realize now that I've been doing that by necessity with the stories I submit to the 24 Hour Short Story Contest. The word count is always just a few hundred words less than my first draft, so I wind up going through sentence by sentence to rephrase, trim, snip, delete, edit, etc. In the most extreme cases, I have to lose entire passages. What's left is usually a much leaner story than I would normally write, and you know what? That's a good thing.

Not to imply that I have verbal diarrhea, but I'm all to prone to use a fifteen-word clause where a single adjective will do. I think that's because the composition, in my head, is being generated in a certain order, and my brain is converting those thoughts to language in the same order. So if I think of a woman, then think that she's beautiful, I'll probably write "the woman, whom he thought was very beautiful" instead of "he thought the woman was beautiful," or even "the beautiful woman...." (Hell, if it's from "his" POV, I don't need to specify that he's the one thinking that, right?)

Those are revisions that only become apparent when the brain is going through a completely different process. Composing is take thoughts and converting them to words. Revision is the process of making sure that the words can be reconverted into the proper thoughts. I don't think it's really possible to do both of those at once, which is why revision is so important. The 10% rule, then, becomes a rule of thumb that pinpoints one way to achieve that... using stronger language.

I guess by that I mean "content" language. Words like "of" and "that" and "it" lack content, so why not replace them with a word that will work for you?