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| Michael dressed appropriately for a murder mystery event. |
So, I spent the first three unscheduled days—Wednesday through Friday—doing something I haven’t done in quite some time: I reviewed story partials.
I have several hundred partially written stories on my computer (more than 300 of them are crime fiction). Some are little more than a sentence, while others are full outlines or are opening scenes with notes about what might follow. Some partials are much further along than that.
I didn’t make it through all the partials in three days, but what I did is open and read as many files as possible. Sometimes I added a sentence or a scene. Sometimes I made notes about what the story needed, and sometimes I did nothing but read, close the file, and move to the next.
During this process, two stories caught my attention. One was missing only the final scene, which I wrote. The other was missing bits and pieces throughout the entire ms., and I filled in the gaps. I now have two short stories that are almost ready to submit. The first needs the last sentence or last paragraph tweaked and the other needs a final proofread. Now that I’m back to wrangling deadlines, it may be awhile before I can put the finishing touches on these stories, but I already know where I intended to submit each of them.
WHY SO MANY
A common question early career writers ask experienced writers is where we get our ideas. There are many facetious answers—I get mine for a dime a dozen from a PO Box in New Jersey—but the truth is that ideas come from everywhere.
What I learned long ago, though, is that if I don’t capture the ideas, I lose them. That’s why I have so many partially written stories on my computer.
Some are unfinished because I can’t resolve a plot problem, others remain unfinished because they require research I have yet to do, and others remain unfinished because there are no appropriate markets. (Trust me, if anyone ever resurrects True Story or any of the other confession magazines, I can single-handedly fill several issues by finishing all the confession partials I stopped working on when the last two confession magazines ceased publication.)
And I don’t consider my files an idea graveyard. Several times I have completed and sold partials that were years—even decades—old because a new market surfaced or because I finally resolved a plot problem that had vexed me.
Hurricanes don’t usually prompt a dive into my files, but any excuse to review the partials has the potential to reap rewards.
It did this time.
HELENE REDUX
Helene didn’t just cause postponement of my trip to SleuthFest last week, it also caused Temple and I to cancel next week’s trip to Asheville, NC, where we planned to visit Temple’s daughter. Luckily, her daughter, her daughter’s roommate, and both of their pets, are safe.
I hope everyone else we know in the hurricane’s path are also safe and that all y’all’s lives will soon return to normal.
Michael, it's good to know that I'm not the only one with dozens and dozens of partials on the computer, waiting for... something. And I'm so glad that you and your family, all of them, are safe.
ReplyDeleteVery glad Temple's daughter, roommate, and their pets are all okay.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear everyone's safe. I like the hat.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, Michael, how do you actually keep track of so many partial stories? I assume they have their own folder, but are the individual flies titled in any way that might remind you of what's inside or when you last worked on it? Asking because when I suddenly have an idea of something to do with an old fragment, it often takes me a while just to hunt the thing down.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll join everybody else in being glad to hear your family members are well. I vacationed in Asheville once, and found it to be a beautiful town with a lot of friendly folks. It's been devastating seeing the damage there over the last week.
I have folders titled by genre. Thus, horror stories go in one folder, crime fiction in another. Then each file is named according to the title of the story. On the occasion I don't have a title, I use a descriptive file name such as "Two guys a dog and a murder."
DeleteI can usually find what I want when I have an idea to add to a partial. Still, I sometimes forget some of the partials, and that's why it's a good idea to occasionally reread as many of them as possible, as I did last week.
As it was with the two stories I mentioned—one of which I finished and submitted earlier today—ideas are sparked during the rereading. Usually, it's something small—a sentence, a paragraph, or notes about what the story needs—but sometimes inspiration strikes, and I'm then able to finish the story as if no time at all had passed since I started work on it.
So glad everyone’s safe, Michael! My sister in West Asheville took her dog and drove to stay with a friend in Jacksonville, which Helene apparently didn’t mess with….
ReplyDelete