Last month, I had the opportunity to participate in a “write-in” as part of the New West Festival of Words 2018. Having never taken part in a write-in before, I admit I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it just be three hours of writing time? Would it just journalling?
As it turns out, it was an elaborate challenge to my writing process. Continue reading “Rifling through your Wordhoard: The comparative value of write-ins”
Everyone knows nothing’s perfect after the first draft.
But how many drafts are you supposed to write? Where is that fine line between honing a work and polishing a turd? When do you accept something as a failure–nay, a learning experience?
I think the answer is when it is holding you back.
Perhaps you’re too focused on that one piece that you’re neglecting to think of others. What you imagined was your opus is now your albatross. Something a colleague once said to me in the editing room, “You just have to let it go, man.”
Let it go.*
Sounds easy, sure. But, wow. It’s not.
Continue reading “Reworking a draft: when do you just have to let it go?”
Flash fiction is a form with such tightly controlled standards that – for me – attempting it is like joining the marines. And I just don’t have what it takes. My usual authorial endeavours are a bit too akin to guerrilla warfare for me to stray too often onto the open battlefield that is the flash fiction market.
Yes, all stories need a beginning, middle, and end. You need to introduce a character, set up their arc, and then watch them complete it. But somewhere along the way, the structure of flash fiction has narrowed to include that little twist at the end: a bow that ties it all together. But when you are required to telegraph your intent so clearly, how do you hide the seams that show where you stitched this all together?
Perhaps I just haven’t worked this out yet.
My flash fiction piece “Nineties Kid” appears today at Every Day Fiction.
Happy New Year everyone and it’s an honour to be the last story of 2017, despite how dreadful this year has been. Raise a glass to 2018; live long, prosper… all of that!
Back in 2013, I sat down with Monika Malczynski to discuss “The Stars/Les Étoiles,” my writing process, and the crazy road my life was on at that time.
