Welcome to the October edition of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Be sure to visit Alex J. Cavanaugh and the other talented writers.
This month's question is "When do you know your story is ready?
Standard stories have a beginning, middle and an end. That's why I enjoy writing poetry, because often times you can make up the rules as you go along, or at least that's what I tell myself.
In writing stories for a local news website, I know my story is ready when I've told the most important details of the event or evoked emotion in a human interest story - all in about 1,000 words or less.
Once I've submitted a story to the editor after proofreading it several times, a calming affect sweeps over me. All right, sometimes I feel more like a college student cramming to complete a final paper on the night before graduation.
After I completed my latest story, I decided to drive over to my mom's for a relaxing visit.
Mom: Let me see your teeth.
Horrible Daughter: Why do I have food stuck in them?
Mom: Just smile for me.
(Horrible Daughter obliges.)
Mom: Well, they could be whiter. You could still smile, but they should be whiter.
Then it hit me. I was one day off in my story. I thought the event was October 10th, but it was really October 9th.
I texted my editor at once, and fortunately the story had not been published yet. I raced home and made the correction. Talk about making a deadline by the skin of my teeth.
Now, I'm off to a dentist to correct my other problem, but I know something else will come up, and I'll never ever really be ready.
