Stuck in the World of Dreams and Writing

It’s 9 AM here in China.

Typed 7 pages of my short story yesterday.

And that’s only ½ of the story.

I used standard Times New Roman, 12 size font. Single space using double when only when I go to the next paragraph.

Now I’m worried. Is that too long?

Great. First attempt in writing a short story and it turns out too long?

Mornings are really my prime time for writing. When afternoon beckons, I’m found with my nose squashed on the desk dozing off. Damn heat.

It’s weird because I used to be a night owl with the knowledge that I’m the most active during mornings but ignored it to watch anime or surf the Internet till the fingers of dawn paint the sky purple and pink. Very unproductive. Normal wake-up time used to be 10 or 11am.

I got back to typing my 4 page and counting letter to my cousin in the afternoon and was off to mark papers for my college’s remedial exam for those who failed (yes, they still give them and only half of the students showed up. What do you expect? It’s summer vacation!).

Realized I’m not my usual gregarious self at school today as I’ve lately been coped up in my apartment and in my alternate universe of writing. I walk around surrounded by an unseen purple haze of dreaminess and dazedness. I’m not 100% out yet. I’m still caught up in the border and the immigration officer is staring at me, “You wanna pass or not?” and I’m looking groggy eyed, swaying on my feet, the noxious fumes of the real world slowly injecting its poison into my system and slurring, “Not yet. Lemme stay a little longer.”

Today got lots of writing in my to-do list which includes writing a comic script out of my short story which should be fun. I’ve never done it before and I did some research just to prep myself. To know the reason why I’m doing this extra work, click here. Tomorrow I’ll tell blog on the experience and compare what’s it like writing a short story and writing a comic script. It’s a whole different ballpark,folks and am looking forward to it challenging the way I used to think. Stay tuned.

Kill your Darlings

Editing the short story took longer than I thought –half a day.

I got stuck rewriting a corny line. Thinking, ‘would this character really say this?’ It was hard trying to see where it fit in the draft.

Crossed out a lot of superfluous lines. Hah! No mercy!

Then for the whole afternoon, I planned what I’ll do for the next two weeks and got started on my online TESOL course which is a new requirement for a work visa in my city in China if you’re a teacher.

Now that summer vacation’s here, I’ve got more time to concentrate on my personal goals (which would take me to do what I really want in life): writing and transitioning to become a freelance writer. YES! For now, no more day job! It’s a temporary stay in heaven.

I just read Devon’s 5 short stories in 10 weeks ebooklet and decided to take on the goal of writing 5 short stories in 10 weeks. I’ll start by next week and churn out 1 short story every 2 weeks.

In Devon’s ebooklet, it suggests reading newspapers to get your writer’s juices flowing. But that’s not how I work. I want the stories to come to me. I don’t want to look for them because the tendency is they’ll never emerge. At first I was worried on how to come up with three other short stories concepts (already had two). But inspiration didn’t fail me. Boy, did the ideas surprise me too. I’ve got 5 great ideas for short stories that bam! came out of nowhere. They’re of different literary genres too. Not bad in less than a week.

Brainstorming’s easy. The hard part is plucking them from the world of ideas and putting them on paper.

The Cutting Process- Revising My Short Story

Today I was able to reduce the first 21 handwritten pages of my short story into 9 pages. Not bad.

I compressed 3 separate scenes into one. I also cut out two of my favorite scenes to make the plot move more quickly. It’s hard but as Faulkner said, “Kill your darlings.”

Was up writing all day with revising the entire first half of the story. Left hand got cramped so was forced to use my right hand. Its handwriting is pretty ugly but at least I can see the letters.

I’m looking at my first attempt at writing a short story since 6^th grade and I overdid it. I’ve got 31 handwritten pages. It’s almost like a novella. But now I’ve managed to get it down to 19 pages. That’s almost half of what it was.

Tomorrow I’m going to start editing. Can’t wait!