Yesterday, I mentioned a short story idea that had been demanding my attention for a while. Last night, after watching my summertime guilty pleasure (Big Brother 6) I sat down and wrote most of it. When I left off, I had about 500 words left, though I didn’t know that at the time. The story’s called “Talking Old Soldier.” 2300 words in first draft.
My wife worked a night shift, and I often have a hard time sleeping when she’s not there. I stay up later than usual, and I am restive. I got to bed a couple of hours late, but woke up around 4 am with my mind working on the story’s ending. Really working on it — not just visualizing what would happen, but writing and rewriting the prose. I tried all my usual tricks to get back to sleep but none worked, so I got up at 4:30 and transcribed the final paragraph. I still had a gap between where I’d left off and the ending, but that didn’t take long.
I’ve done a little revision, but it’s still in what I call “raw” form. I printed it out to read over the weekend–my revision style is different in hardcopy than it is on the screen.
Once I have it polished, I’ll have to figure out where to send it. It’s not a supernatural story at all. It almost qualifies as crime or suspense, but that’s a stretch, too. It might be an Alfred Hitchcock submission — that’s a market I’d love to crack.
