Pam Bustin
creator, editor, story tender
A Great Day in the Trenches: Working on a Story
Evening, All…
Not much to report DIRECTLY on the 3Day Novel front, but a great day of work done.
I called in my MINIONS! Being a small group of writerly folk I know who where brave and kind enough to take the time to read and comment on the 500 word story that I am writing for the Geist Magazine Short Long-Distance Writing Contest.
They all gave great and USEFUL feedback and I spent today reworking the story.
Ahhh… feels so good to be working and to be working with others again. I’ve grown very… insular… as I work on the novel (Sanctuary). It is so big and I am not ready for anyone to see it. There really is a TIME to share your work with others. Too soon and… well… damage can be done to both the story and your own story-teller soul.
The timing on this one was… just right.
I was able to take and incorporate many of the notes people gave me.
I also compiled the notes (without names) to share with the readers. I am always curious, when I respond to something, how much of that response is… just me — my mood, my own obsessions, and so on — and how much is actually seen/agreed on by other readers.
It’s pretty darned interesting to lay out all the comments both the “things to work on/think about” and the “this BIT works GREAT” stuff and see the back and forth.
As one of my trusty long time readers said,
Interesting to read notes. Some allusions/unspokens are crystal to some and vague to others.
…
What a balancing act. Deciding how much detail is necessary to reach people without crossing into spelling everything out in sitcom like writing.
True so true.
And in 500 words, no less!
After the judging of the contest, I might just share the different versions of the story here, and the comments that aided me as I felt my way toward a final draft.
Unless, of course, I find another market to submit the piece to. They you might have to wait a bit longer for the big reveal. But it would be fun to do that.
The fantastic Arthur Slade, author of The Hunchback Assignment Series, Jolted and many more books, just shared a great post on his blog called See My Editor Tear My Work to Shreds – it’s fascinating to see how he and his editor work together. I’m so glad Art was generous enough to give us a peek into the process.
What a great day I had. Flexing my writing muscles.
That counts as prep for the 3Day in my books.
Huge gratitude to those who helped. As I wrote today, I owe you one!
Wishing you all a wonderful week.
go easy ~p
Places I read
some places i hang out
Pam Bustin 