The Book of Screed - March 2nd, 2008

Driving to the grocery store today, I saw a Prius in the wild for the first time. The license plate:

61 MPG

Wow! Apparently Prius owners really are that smug.

-JM

Short stories are tricky to write, friends and neighbors. I should know, because I think I've been rewriting the same short story for the last couple of weeks.

I first wrote "Blackened Wolves" and felt mostly OK about it. But upon later reflection I soon grew to dislike it, scrapped it, and began rewriting it as "Razor Shadows". I got about halfway through "Razor Shadows" when I concluded that it wasn't working. But I'm convinced the basic idea was still sound (I just botched the implementation, though), so I began once again with "Frozen Shadows", starting tonight. I think it's working, and I can probably finish a rough draft in another two days or so.

Short stories have to be just right. Otherwise they don't work. Every line must flow into the next. It's like a computer program; if every line doesn't follow into the next, the whole thing crashes. Or it's like some sort of electronic device; it must function as more than the sum of the component parts. They have to be precise, and every word must reside in exactly the right place, or the whole thing doesn't work.

I wish I could articulate this concept better, because I'm sure it's important.

-JM