Well. There.

[akirlu]

For the first time in many a year, I have written, and much more to the point, finished, a story. As in fiction. Good lord.

athenais wanted a writing group, and I was thinking that some sort of structure to force me to write more regularly would be good, and because of athenais being of that bizarre breed of humans who actually implement ideas, deathless_pose was born. A group in which members write a new short story every week. So today was the deadline of week one, and I actually finished the thing! With, like, hours and hours to spare before the midnight deadline!

It's an interesting feeling, being finished. I feel a bit empty and deflated. The story is very much itself, and I think even after it has a chance to ferment and mellow on the shelf for a while, I may still like it. But in order to let the story be itself, there were a great many things that had to be left out, and I feel strangely wistful about those. Does the sculptor regret the marble chips, I wonder?

The process of getting finished was interesting too. The feeling of wading through knee-deep taffy to make progress was very familiar. Even when I have a pretty good idea of where I am going in a story, there is this sensation of something sucking at me, holding me back. Sometimes that's a real thing -- story decisions that I have to make before I write the next word. Sometimes it's just hesitation -- waiting for the arc of the trapeeze to get to the right point again before I leap. And, as usual, at least as much of the plotting transpired away from the keyboard, as at it. For whatever reason, structure comes to me when I'm not actually stringing together words. But again, there were surprises. The thing with the gun at the end -- I didn't plan that, I didn't even know it would happen until I wrote it and then it seemed the most natural and obvious thing in the world. It is so amazingly cool that that happens. And I often have trouble with rushing my endings. This one is quick, but I don't think it's rushed.

But, most of all: I FINISHED a STORY. Geezo.

Comments

[eackerman.livejournal.com]

Congrats on finishing the story. That's the most important step. When I get bogged down and realize I've been staring at the White Screen Of Despair for half an hour without typing, I remember a saying attributed to Nora Roberts:

You can fix anything but a blank page.

And I know just what you mean about the gun. I had a moth fly into one of my scenes once and I couldn't figure out what that damned moth was doing there until it told me.

[jackwilliambell.livejournal.com]

Conga-rats! Now you need to submit it. And write another one. Wash, rinse, repeat...

Personally my resolve tends to break down at the submission step.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh, congratulations! And it was a really good story, too.

I felt a bit deflated and scornful of my own story after I'd posted it. Lasted about one hour, then I was distracted by other things and now I merely think, "Huzzah! Is it Monday yet?" Because I'm ready to go again.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Good show! Well done! Envy.

[urlgirl.livejournal.com]

Wow, congratulations! It always makes me so happy to know that things are being completed successfully in this world, even when I'm not the one completing them. Keep going! :-)

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

Congratulations.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Way to go. Write, finish, polish, send out.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Yes, I recognize the deflated feeling, and the feeling that some of the best bits got left out. Also the wading through mud feeling. Hah! So, congratulations on working through them as well as finishing the story.

Hesitation, to me, has a connotation of inaction through fear or some other inhibiting factor. Hesitation throws timing off. Someone waiting for the trapeze bar to get to the right place is not hesitating, but pausing, and in synch with events.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Good job!