That’s a deliberate typo, in honor of my revision work on my short story “Erosion.” I could have gone with “erision” but that actually looked more like a real word. Or a brand name.
It looks like this is going to be my workshop piece for the next semester. I thought the first draft as about five pages too long — about 2500 words — and my advisor thought it could drop down another 500 more. I don’t think in word count when I write, I usually don’t even check unless there’s a reason, but it did feel long-ish.
Because I threw in the kitchen sink. It’s a pretty broad piece of YA humor and I was interested to see what stuck. First major cuts included: the marijuana farm, the environmentalist conspiracy, wife cloning, the history of California wildfires, and the odd little one-liners that interrupted the tone.
The thing is still too long for workshopping. I need to play with margins a bit because the workshop pieces have a page maximum. It’s only a page and a half, so that’s a fraction of an inch all around. No sweat, I’ll make the page count.
Except…
I need to work on the motivation of the two main characters. That means adding words. Which means I’m going to have to go in and tighten paragraphs, shaving sentences her and there, maybe even a bit of over-cutting just to make the page count. I hate to work that way — things should be as long as they need to be — but perhaps I’ll feel differently once it’s sculpted into fighting trim.
I’ve got two days. That’s plenty of time. I like it the way it is, and it can’t really get any worse.
When is it safe to start thinking about shopping a story around? I only ask because I’m worried that once I get into the workshop it might feel like it’s impossibly bad. I’m looking to inoculate myself in advance by thinking positive.
Boy, am I glad you posted this because I had completely space the workshop submission deadline. Whoopsie. Now to scramble.
No, no, no. You go into workshopping convinced that it’s hideous. Then any positive comments are a pleasant surprise.
But I might put the wife-cloning back in.
Seriously, have you pinpointed the heart of your story? Build around that. Let the rest fall off. There’s always pain at the bottom of true humor and that’s your core.
As much as I liked the wife cloning section (with its Disney connections) the sections cut drifted far and wide from the heart of the story. If anything should go back it would be the history of Claifornia wildfires because it’s at the center of what causes erosion and sends homes sliding off the hillsides.
But it’s a love story, or rather, an anti-love story, and wildfires slowed things down. Wife cloning belonged to a secondary character.
No, I’m sending this of tomorrow totally convinced it’s the strongest thing I’ve written in a good stretch. Once it is out of my hands I will panic, realize the fault in my thinking, and be on track to enter the workshop petrified that I’m about to meet the firing squad.