So Behind!

On Wednesday I told you all about my critique group, which (in case I didn't tell you then) I actually love.  A lot.  And I'm seriously excited about this Monday when we get to see what everyone came up with for some writing prompts that were sent out.

Now, I actually finished my stories for Monday on Friday.  And I was happy that I managed it, because I was having some difficulties with the second short story I was writing.  You see, I started writing it on Thursday, and by Friday I was a fair bit into it.  It was sitting at 1500 words, and I had it open and was staring at it during #FNTWP, when I realized why I wasn't willing to write as much as I normally am.

Nothing was happening in it.  I mean, at all.  The story was starting to read like the first chapter of a novel, with world building to boot.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the world.  In fact, I may find myself writing about that world in the near future.  Unfortunately, the way it was reading wasn't good for a short story.  I had to somehow put a whole lot of tension and conflict into the last 1500 words, and I didn't even know where the story was going.  I didn't have a good enough grasp on the character, or the setting, to be effective doing it.

Of course, this realization came only after a comment was made by a twitter friend (L.S. Taylor) asked me if maybe there wasn't any tension in it.  That was when I went back and reread what I had written so far (something I don't usually do for fear that I'll not want to finish writing it because it's just that bad).  And it was that bad.  I had a moment of sitting there staring dumbly at the screen, thinking 'what the hell am I going to do now', and then another story idea hit me.

There wasn't even a moment's hesitation after I had that random idea.  I instantly closed that document, opened another and was off.  I finished the story some three hours later (though it is sitting at 3650 words, and needs to be cut down closer to 3000).

Now, of course, I have 2 full short stories (totaling about 6850 words) and 2 chapters (totaling about 5000 words) to edit before tomorrow.  I'm sitting at work, wondering if I will possibly have time to do it all, and kicking myself for not getting it done sooner.  I probably shouldn't be so hard on myself, after all, if I had finished that second story any sooner, it wouldn't be what it is right now.  I would still be holding onto that first story that was going nowhere, and I would have heard about it from my critique group come Monday.

Unfortunately I'm stuck trying to get it all done today so that I'm ready for tomorrow. (Technically I have until the end of the day to get in my submission for next week, but as tomorrow is going to be a full day, I just don't have time to work on it.  Which means I must have it done tonight!!)

Well, I suppose I should really get on it so I can get caught up.  Wish me luck!!