Yesterday I woke early with three lines of dialog in my head. I immediately booted up my computer and those three lines of dialog became three of the first four sentences of a new story. I spent much of the day away from home, but I had access to e-mail and every so often I e-mailed myself a snippet of dialog, a sentence of description, or a note about what a scene should contain. When I returned home yesterday evening I copied everything into my Word file, put all the pieces in the correct order, and wrote the connective tissue that tied all the pieces together. By the time I went to bed I had a new 2,100-word story.
I proofread/edited it this morning. After correcting a few typos and adding a few words, it'll be ready to submit.
I don't expect a prompt response, however, because this is just about the worst time of year to submit a Christmas story...
2 comments:
Depends on the market, Michael. Some have lead times of 12-18 months.
Even if the timing is "off," it's wonderful to see you back on track in terms of productivity!
When stories appear out of nowhere, one doesn't say, "Sorry, no thank you, wrong time of year." One says, "Let me get this down before I forget it!"
So the manuscript is in an envelope awaiting tomorrow's trip to a mail box.
I don't anticipate maintaining this level of productivity--would that I could!--but right now I feel like the creative dam has broken and I have to ride the wave as long as I possibly can because I now know what the alternative is.
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