The Life

I learned something last week about my writing over the past couple of weeks. Idea driven stories suck. I also realize I'm in too much of a hurry to get my work "seen" and I lose a lot of details when I do that.

For my next project I'm thinking I need to find someone who I can write about and write his or her story. Imagining a scene and then trying to introduce the characters leaves the plot and the emotion flat.

This brings me to my next topic, I usually know what is 'right' or 'wrong' with my stories when I post/give them to people to read. When I get honest feedback I rarely get a criticism or an atta boy that I didn't expect. It is my job then to pour over the items I already know are weak and fix them. Often I'm in such a hurry to be 'read' that I don't take the time to fix these and other minor things and the story falls flat before it really has a chance.

So I need to make the resolve of slowing down and dissecting each line in my post-edit mode. One thing I have often read is that I should let the story sit for a few weeks and then go back and reread/edit it. It become fresher and I'm not caught up in the emotion of writing it. I don't tend to do that because of my limited amount of work. The idea then is to get into a cycle of writing. Where I would write a short story, put it aside for a while and then start a new story. Maybe after I wrote the next story or two go back and edit the first one. Write another story then edit the second one and then polish the first one again. This process would accomplish tow things for me. Writing more and producing quality work when I do throw it to the wolves, er readers.

On a side note, thank God it is spring. We had a taste of it a couple of weeks ago, but then it turn cold and snowy. After a couple of weeks of miserable weather, the last few days have been beautiful.

cya laterz
me