Guns & Magic

 

Paul Strand (Aperture Masters of Photography, Number One).

 

Paul Strand: Sixty Years of Photographs.

 

-David

 

Man Ray: Photographs, Paintings, Objects. Some of the photographs are amazing. Some of them fall into what I consider “conceit” (as in, “This is art because I said it’s art.”) or are experiments that were (for reasons lost to the early 20th century) declared “art”.

 

This is first of a batch of books of photographs I checked out this week.

 

-David

 

Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich by Robert Frank.

 

-David

 

The Broker by John Grisham.

 

-David

 

Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy.

 

My mother-in-law left a small collection of “airport reading” after her recent visit. This is the first on the pile.

 

-David

 

Villiany Amok. Yes. Another Hero System RPG sourcebook. This should be the last one for a while, though.

 

-David

 

My round #1 story for the Creative Writing Championships Flash Fiction 2008 has been submitted:

 

 

Time for a bit of reflection.

 

 

1. Mission Accomplished! I wrote and submitted a <1000 word short short story in less than 48 hours. On the other hand, I never doubted I could.

 

2. I Cut 1100 Words. My first draft was 2100 words long. Which is also covered below in “What Went Wrong”. So I had to cut 1100 words to meet contest guidelines. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it. Not and retain the same essential story. But I think I managed it. In fact, I think the story might be better now. Every sentence has been gone over time and time again and I tried to make them all contain as much exposition, plot and character as I could shoehorn in.

 

3. I Turned the Story In On Time. I was sitting downstairs watching TV, letting my third draft “cool off” before final editing and submission. And almost forgot that the deadline wasn’t midnight for me (CDT here). So I had only 40 minutes to do a final edit and write a “brief synopsis”.

 

4. The Story Came Easier Than Expected. When I first saw the story parameters (romance, on a rollercoaster, with a straw), I shook my head and hoped for the best. Romance and rollercoaster weren’t that big a deal (though, frankly, a ferris wheel would’ve been easier). The possible sticking point was the straw. People don’t share drinks, as an example of how a romance might include a straw, on a rollercoaster. Not more than once, anyway. And if it was a straw that broke something (like a rollercoaster track), that wouldn’t be much of a romance. The idea of chewing on a straw came to me as I was building the present-day-plus-flashback structure. That both the ex and the son chewed on straws (and that it annoyed Jo both times) seemed like a workable bit of characterization, and a nice set of “bookends”.

 

5. I Edited My Opening. Something I’ve struggled with in my writing is editing/revising the opening. I’ve tended to keep the opening I first wrote. And in the past year or so I’ve noticed that I needed to stop doing that. The opening of this story underwent major changes. Not the least because I had to get the story going faster–and with fewer words. So, good practice.

 

 

1. 2X Too Long 1st Draft. It says “Flash Fiction” in the name of the contest. And a month or so ago I actually read that. Yesterday, while writing, I forgot. Silly me.

 

2. Did I Really Write a Romance? It’s not a genre I’ve tackled before, not even during A Short Story a Day back in 2006. 1000 words doesn’t offer a lot of time and space to follow the traditional romance arc of girl-meets-boy/girl-hates-boy/girl-fucks-boy/girl-loses-boy/happily-ever-after. My take on flash fiction is that you focus on one decision. And you try to provide as much useful and entertaining context for the decision as possible. So I tried to do that within the context of a romance. Two romances, maybe. One failed and one that might happen. Maybe it worked.

 

That’s about it, I think, for what went wrong.

 

Overall, I’m pleased with the story. Even if I did edit it to within a comma of its life and now have a hard time reading it. I don’t often edit stories this much. So I guess it’s good practice.

 

Feel free to leave comments on the story itself, or about this post-mortem.

 

If you also participated in the contest, I’d love to hear from you. If your stories are online, drop me the link.

 

-David

 

Jo smiled when Owen grabbed her hand, his fingers sticky from cotton candy and cold from his drink, and led her straight for the Zzzzingo! She remembered when he would have held her hand the whole way, pulling her along. Twelve now, Owen no longer held Mom’s hand in public. Not for long anyway. Once she was following, he dropped her hand and started to pull ahead. And away.

 

Just like Robert, his father.

 

“Wait up,” she said, smile gone, her voice sharper than she intended.

 

VN:F [1.9.1_1087]

 

I cut 1100 words. Mostly adjectives and exposition. Hopefully, the story still makes sense.

 

I’ll do one more draft before I submit it to the contest. In a bit. Need to let things cool.

 

-David

 

GENRE – Romance

LOCATION – A rollercoaster

OBJECT – A straw

 

Jo smiled when Owen grabbed her hand, his fingers  sticky from cotton candy and cold from holding his drink, and headed straight for the Zzzzingo! She remembered when he would have held her hand the whole way, pulling her along. Twelve now, Owen no longer held Mom’s hand in public. Not for long anyway. Once she was following, he dropped her hand and started to pull ahead. And away.

 

Just like Robert, his father.

 

VN:F [1.9.1_1087]