Monday, March 9, 2009

"Alpenglow" Finished!

Well, I guess it was nagging me so I sat down and finished "Alpenglow" and it came in right around 5300 words. I'm pretty happy with the way this story turned out. I had been fighting it a little so this afternoon I erased the final third and rewrote it cold. Of course an entirely new ending presented itself to me.

A better ending.

Isn't that the way it always works? *sigh*

One problem was I had a character doing something dramatic but the more I thought of it the more convinced I became the drama was entirely all on my side. (Me, Drama Whore!) The conflict was there and necessary to the story, but I let my own emotions come into play and force him to do something he would never do under any circumstance. At least...not this time.

(I remember some weeks ago when I was at the coffee shop and I wrote this scene and told my writing buddy about it. She looked at me as if I were crazy. Even she knew it was wrong. God bless writing buddies!)

I wasn't being true to him. My fault. He knew it, I didn't. I finally came around to his way of thinking. He's happier now. Me, too.

Funny. I had every intention of taking the rest of today off. I went into the garden and drank a little raw whiskey while sitting in the sun like a lizard. It was nice while it lasted then I got up and went inside and made a beeline to my laptop.

Guess I wasn't finished after all. It works out well, though. It does free up time next week I can apportion to something else, writing-wise. That's good. Less stress is always welcome.

Huh. I feel I accomplished something significant today. Happy? Hm, perhaps.

More like relief.

1 comment:

Kringle said...

I happened upon your blog and was interested in your musings about writing. Its funny, all of my publications have been in the academic realm yet I have been writing far longer in the personal and creative realm... yet it would be more fun to publish in the personal and creative realm! Thanks for sharing your process...
Kringle

PS- If you need a laugh, I posted a cool link on my latest blog.

Blessings
Kringle