What Have I Got Myself Into?

[catmagnet]

My writer daughter talked me into another writing challenge.  This one is a story a day for the month of May.  (Ooh, rhyme!)

I'm the sort of writer who gets an idea, plays with it for half an hour or so, then sets it on the back burner for a while.  When, during a later brainstorming session, the characters start talking to me, I figure it's time to

Comments

[maverick_weirdo]

Even you note about not being able to write short stuff is nearly 750 words long

[catmagnet]

You're so right. Good thing I'm a fast typist!

[army_of_gnomes]

You can do it! Maybe I just need to sit there and poke you when you start researching or thinking too hard about it. Or you need a hat that tells you it's okay just to write crap (I have the thought this would look like a big golden doot, and you could probably find it on that Japanese website :D).

P.S.: I fixed all your lj cuts. :)

[catsittingstill]

Well, you could think of this as an exercise to get better at your craft--like a musician playing scales and arpeggios, or learning to improvise to a set of chords. The point isn't whether it sounds like great music, the point is training the hands and brain?

Or you could just go for story-poems. Frankly, I consider that a challenging and worthy literary form.

You might consider the value of pruning--just as it is often necessary with poems and song lyrics, surely it is necessary with short stories or even longer stories. If you made this partly an exercise in pruning, would it be possible to get the story compact enough that you could fix all the typos and poor word choices that leave you jittery now?

[catmagnet]

I do the pruning when I rewrite. Then, it's fun to see if I can cut 100 words, 200 words, or more. I fix weak verbs, and reword truly awful sentences. This is when the "editor me" gets to have a lovely time.

Story-a-day month is for pure writing. I did better today! A story that's only 4058 words long. . . . (And I think it will be a keeper. Needs a lot of rewriting, but is quite fun.)