Wednesday,
March 5, 2003
Hump day, so to speak
Since
I'm writing this, you can assume that Bill did not wreak vengeance upon me for
naming a Bubba character after him. But I do think that one of his more. . .interesting.
. .characters will wind up being named Melanie.
All in all, the FutureClassics meeting went really well -- since we had 5 stories to critique we met at Jerry's house early for pizza, and got started as soon as the pies were gone. Apart from a couple of small points and suggestions for Bubba sayings, everybody really liked my story, to the point where some of them said it was the best thing they've seen from me yet.
Which worries me a bit, as this story was. . .well. . .easy. I mean, I DO agree with them that it's pretty much picture-perfect for the antho, and it is a short, sharp piece of writing, but jeez, I just whomped it up in about 24 hours. I didn't fret too much about plot twists or characterization, just spoke it aloud as I wrote (to make sure that I had the Bubba tone down right) and blurted it onto the screen.
And it turned out really, really well. I dunno -- maybe that's what I should have been doing all along. Clear away the tangles and dust, be as straightforward as possible, read it aloud as I write (which does help a lot, I've found, although the cats look at me as if I was insane) and glop it out in big steaming chunks.
If I've been sabotaging
myself all these years by being "literary," I am going to be so pissed.