Writing Life

Taking it to the Chopping Block

This past week I was working on my short story about Fink the Mink and Falloden. It was droning on and on, but I was determined to stick to my outline - which was now boring. I finally got so frustrated that I decided to go for a long walk through the field. Less than 10 minutes into the walk, I had written my way out of my boring story.

When I got back to my writing cave (van), I took an ax to over 2,000 words. The story was finally short. It was funny! It was fun! It wasn't easy to let go of my original plot. I really wanted to keep the cave and all the traps, disasters, and monsters in it. But, chopping it down to the essentials made it a much better story.