Friday, 26 January 2001

Lots of good writing!

I had planned to start something new. But, looking over my old stuff, I happened to notice "What's It Do," which was one I was very fond of, but which I was also never quite satisfied with. (It had the same problems as all the rest--it lacked dynamic tension.) Anyhow, all at once yesterday an idea for fixing it came to me, so I did a major re-write. I've finished a first pass through the story, saving almost all the stuff I really liked, while adding a bit of tension. It still isn't a keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat story, but not all stories need to be that.

I'll let it sit overnight and then give it a careful read tomorrow. It's nearly ready to send out, though.

There was some excitement at work. The new building gets its power from the University of Illinois (which has its own power plant). There was a fire at the plant and we lost power around 8:45 in the morning.

I cut short a pretty unproductive morning, went home for an early lunch, and then called back several times over the course of the afternoon to see if the power was back on. They hadn't restored it in time for it to make any sense to go back in. (And, in fact, may not have restored it yet. Once it was too late to go back and get any work done, I quit calling.

So, the plan for tomorrow is:

• a trip to Kinkos to make the copies I need for my Clarion West submission
• a trip to the post office to get that stuff in the mail
• a careful pass over "What's It Do,"
• a bit of brainstorming to decide what completely new story to write.

I particularly like the first few minutes of writing a new story--the period when anything can happen and there aren't any flaws yet.