One at a Time – Here We Go

The revision process has officially begun.

I have about twenty short stories that I’m hoping to turn into a respectable collection. The package has already gone out to an editor who gave me back twelve pages of direction about the readiness of each story, where there were holes that needed stitching, and where I’d sawed off the last page to avoid having a decent ending.

To get the revision process going, I picked the weakest story. It was one that I wrote the night before my writing group was to meet so a hurry-up job at best. But the weakness came from the fact that I couldn’t wait to get to the ending scene. I’d skipped over the parts about creating a setting that was interesting and characters a reader would give two hoots about. I was all about the dream sequence, maybe fascinating (time will tell) but disengaged from caring like a Christmas ornament that had rolled into the street. Interesting, but what does it mean?

I brought the revision to my writing group today. Because they are amazing, they remembered the first draft. This is better, they said, and right then, I appreciated so much how I’d brought a half-dozen half-baked cookies to them a few months ago and they smiled but didn’t clap. Today, they clapped. I made a story better.

There are nineteen more to go. This could end up being my life’s work.