Toe in the Water

Oops 3

Oops 3

A few days ago, I wrote myself into a corner. I was thinking about the prompt for this month’s contest at StAG Firebox and had an interesting idea for it. A quick check on the rules and I was off and writing. In pretty short order, I had just over 500 words and things were going well. I took a break and, of course, that was the end of work for the day.

The next day I attacked the thing with renewed energy. I was really enjoying this one - I liked the basic idea, it was set in a time that I enjoy writing for, and everything was flowing pretty easily. I passed the thousand word mark and figured I could easily finish it within the 2,000 limit.

And then I decided I’d better check the requirements again. One thing I’ve learned in my life is never to ignore these sudden impulses to check on things you think have been properly nailed down.

The maximum word count given was 1,000.

I knew immediately where my confusion had come from. The What a Character Official Contest this month has a 2,000 word limit and I also have an idea what to write for that. Somehow I had mixed up the two maxima (sorry, just had to get in the Latin plural).

The terrible point was that I’d already exceeded the StAG limit, and I was only halfway through the story. If you hate rewriting as much as I do, you will understand my dismay. I had to take the rest of the day off in disgust.

Overnight I remembered that, at the point where I’d first paused writing, I was still aiming at the correct word limit - 1,000. So, at that moment, I must have been happy that I could tell the whole story within the set boundary. I went back to the manuscript the next day. copied the first 500 words or so into a new document and finished the tale as I had originally intended to.

And I was quite happy with it. Wrapped it up appropriately, added a colourful bow, and sent it off to StAG.

Now, of course, I have the uncompleted longer story waiting for a decision on its future. I was intending for it to have a much fuller and richer ending than the short version, and it has been going well in that direction. So I’d like to finish it.

The only problem is that I hate rewrites and feel pure horror of the idea of writing a new beginning to it, as well as an ending. I am sorely tempted to take up the story where I left off and just continue. Which would leave me with a story that has an identical beginning to the shorter one (which it will have to sit right next to in my portfolio). How many people are going to begin to read it, realise that it seems exactly like the other one, and stop reading as a result? And do I care?

I suppose I do, a little bit. But I also think that the best policy is honesty. I should write a note explaining that it’s just a longer version of the short story and should be read only if the reader wants a deeper understanding of the end.

So that’s what I intend to do. While I’m finishing off the long version (hopefully tomorrow), you could take a look at the short one if you’re interested.

STATIC

Fugitive  (E) A lady with curious hat is rescued from pursuers. #2316183 by Beholden

Word count: 586.