Writing again!

Once again, I've been a negligent blogger. But I hold my head up high, and if you look at my face you'll see no trace of shame. Why?

Because this time I have a very good excuse: I've finally started writing fiction again!! Through my writers' critique groupvine I discovered a new webzine that is accepting short story submissions for its premiere issue. When I read the webzine's description, I realized I had a short story that might possibly fit. I originally wrote this story several years ago, and I had not revised it in quite a while. After reading through the most current draft, I decided surface polishing wasn't enough. I needed to do a serious rewrite. So I spent a good two weeks or so fleshing out the characters and expanding the plot. Finally, when I couldn't stand to look at my draft anymore, I declared it complete (for now) and submitted it to the webzine last week.

I have no idea what my chances are for publication. It depends in part on how many other writers submit to the webzine; but mostly it depends on whether the editor sees my story as a good fit or not.

Whether I get published or not, however, is irrelevant (though of course I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping). I've already achieved my goal in this venture, which was simply to start writing fiction again. I've been creatively dry for so long that it felt wonderful just to be in the thick of a story, the pen in my hand tapping a direct connection to my brain, ideas gushing forth and spilling on the page almost in real time.

I don't think I'm ready to tackle novel writing yet. Ideas for characters, settings and scenarios come in a steady trickle, but viable plots seem to elude me. Still, through lessons learned in the writing of my first two novels, I've managed to breathe freshness into an old short story; and that has to count for something. There may yet be hope for the unfinished short story I began over a year ago, for the poem trilogy as yet missing its third part, and - who knows? - maybe there is even hope for those dozens of novel ideas I've been dutifully writing down and trapping inside an old binder until the time is right for one of them to germinate.

Grad school resumes in just a couple of weeks. Soon the extra time I've been enjoying this summer for leisure reading and creative writing will be overtaken by classes, reading assignments and projects. But I'm glad, at least, that I finally got to take one little stroll down Fiction Lane before returning to Academia.