GUYS I am so frustrated
I’ve always prided myself on being the sort of person who can put out a story when it’s called for, whether a spot needs filling in an anthology or what have you. That I can put out a solid story (not necessarily amazing, but solid) when it’s called for, and that it will be on topic, within the word count guidelines, and done on time.
Which is why I’m going insane right now.
I had a short story due on the first. Nothing special, nothing long–basically whatever I want, about 1.5K to 2K words. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, as the kids say.
Except apparently not.
When I accepted this deadline I thought for sure I’d get some great story ideas while I was in Scotland. Castles! Moors! Faerie legends!
But I didn’t. I learned a lot of neat things, but the best I got was the premise for a story. And then, once we got home I tried to milk said premise into a story, but mostly I got set-up, and backstory, and I couldn’t figure out an actual story to go along with it, at least not one that could be done as a short story.
I talked to my spouse about my story issues, and he gave me a different premise that I thought I’d gotten built up into enough story to get somewhere, but I’ve written like 4K on said story and it’s just…bad.
Like, I know that you can’t write something publishable every time, and it’s okay to throw stories that aren’t working away, but I am just so frustrated at this point. Frustrated that I’m behind schedule, and that I can’t get a story to gel, and that I spent so much time writing just to have nothing to show for it.
Now, there’s some leeway on the deadline, so I should be okay, but I’ve got to get my act together. I’m going to read back through what I have and see if it’s salvageable, but I may need to start all over. Yay.
Wish me luck, squiders. I definitely need it.
