Hold That Thought!

/ cagedunn

Did you know I’m a writer? It’s true. Sort of.

I write stories, and when they’re finished I check them – I call it RRR for Review, Revise, Rewrite. Part of that process includes checking for things that need approval from someone, somewhere.

Those things get noted and requests get sent. And I wait.

Sometimes, the whole story rests on the foundation of those bits. I wait.

And then the return comes, and I eagerly skim … unable to grant … hope you … etc.

And, if you know anyone like me, you know what happened afterwards.

Yep, that’s the one. A not-so-little tanty.

And what happens when a writer throws a tanty?

Said writer writes a story that *ahem* pays them all back.

Did I ever say it’s probably not a good idea to get on the wrong side of a writer? Well, it’s true.

Anyway, I digress. Again. Writers do that, too. Wonderful stories come from the occasional bit of digress.

I did the RRR, a certain well-known software program used for writing words – well, it crashed. The RRR was done a second time, but the mind-set wasn’t quite settled, and … I have to admit it, don’t I? I sent the story off to a publisher.

Then comes the day after.

Something in my dreams forced me to open the story again and do another run-through. And the groan could be heard throughout the house.

The next RRR found a few things not-quite-right. I’m not going to say wrong, and there didn’t appear to be any grammatical or spelling errors, but there were one or two places … okay, there were six!

Can I recommend, if you are also a writer, that you don’t send to a publisher or competition until you’ve at least slept on the story AFTER the second or third RRR? Please. Save yourself.

And go write another book.

Oh, it made the shortlist, but with the errors, I don’t expect to get further.

And now I go back to work on another project just waiting in the shadows.

Who likes neo-noir, Eddic-style works, or short-form sagas?

14 thoughts on “Hold That Thought!”

    • It was fun, though, to just pour it all out in a few days, and to end up with a story someone enjoyed reading enough to short-list it, well, that’s special, too.
      Now, I just have to remember to cool down at the end of it …
      15-30! I do maybe three full RRRs, but that’s after I go through looking for my tell-tale bits (repeats, filters, adverbs, missing segues …). It’s only after I go through for the known issues that I do the RRR process for the ‘story’ issues. And if I think it’s been too easy, I go back and look harder – there’s always something, and if it feels too good to be true …

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