The fun of serialization

I started a new story by writing out three pages of characterization and plot, then I wrote the first seven pages or so, and gave them to my wife. I plan on finishing the second section of about eight or nine pages today, and get the last part finished by the end of the week. The joy of not having the whole story for her to read is immense. It helps that I've made a bit of a cliff hanger.
I think this helps with pacing of a story as well. It's a wierd way to get a draft out, but if I've learned anything by all this writing is that no two stories are the same, and no two stories get written the same way.

Character and POV

Frustrations abound in my latest story for the workshop that I'm distributing tonight. The main character who goes through the transformation of the story isn't the POV character. The main character doesn't seem to offer enough for the story to be told from his point of view. He also experiences a trauma that changes him completely. Maybe I'm just wimping out by telling the story from the point of view of a second person, who doesn't really go through any change whatsoever.
The core idea of this story was ripped form an earlier story that I don't think I'll keep. The main characters show up in this new version, but they could be cut. I don't think they add much to the story. They could go back to their own tale, but their story would have to have a difference propulsion method. (In the original story, they worked around the death of the main character in this latest story. IN this story, the main character doesn't die.)
What this probably means is that this story isn't ready to be told, or I need to water it a bit. I did water it several times, but I may not have pruned wisely. It's up to 2,900 words, which isn't long by my real standard, but it makes me think twice before copying it 19 times for the workshop.
I guess I haven't really braved inside the MC's head enough to tell the story from his POV. I don't mean that I want to write it in first person. I just tend to show what happened off camera, summarizing the information, or showing the results of a series of activities instead of showing them. Perhaps if I did that it would make more sense.

Water it and let it grow

For such a loquacious guy I've developed a dangerous writing habit. I don't know if it's a fear of outrageous copying costs or the constant critique I keep hearing that a lot of the workshop stories could be cut shorter (or at least less wordy), but I'm choking my stories trying to keep them under 3,000 words long.
I haven't been putting as much time into my writing as I'd like to, and one thing I have wanted to do is compile the good advice I'm hearing in the workshop. The best advice I think I've gotten regarding my own writing is to "water it and let it grow."
This isn't something I'd advertise as a writing maxim, because not all writers have the same style of getting a story down on paper. When I started writing in my youth I cranked out thousands of words and the only revision I ever did vas fix spelling and punctuation errors. When I decided to give writing a serious effort last year I still cranked out thousands of words and learned the importance of editing the story as a whole. Somewhere along the line I learned to make things very short. Too short for the way I use the language to tell a story.
Don't get me wrong, I love crafting vignettes under 1,000 words. They're my poetry. But when I want to tell a good tale, I need to water it, and let it grow.

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Another joy of writing comes prom the pen. I found myself sitting in a tire store waiting on my car and had to edit one of my stories with a pen. It was a wonderful experience. Now I find myself writing a first draft on the computer, then I clean up that draft and let my wife read it. Then I grab my favorite fountain pen and sit in another room next to a window and write a whole lot more.
It may be this way right now because 1) the office is a mess, and 2) my Dvorak typing speed is still under 30 WPM and my fingers can't keep up with my thoughts.

Keyboard Layouts

Tuesday night I got a longish lecture on the advantages of the Dvorak keyboard layout. So Wednesday morning I started learning Dvorak. It's much more comfortable but I remembered why computer programs that teach typing skills are so frustrating. Usually they beep if you hit the wrong key, which usually means that the next two or three keys you hit will be wrong as well. The idea behind these programs seems to be "Type at 10 words a minute with 100% accuracy, then improve your speed."

Some advantages that I like already: Because of QWERTY keyboard layouts, when I'm typing fast (usually about 60 WPM) I frequently end up typing my name as Johs, and I have an 'sh' pair in my last name as well, so I have to fix both of them. On the Dvorak keyboard, 's' and 'h' are typed on the same hand, so it's hard to get them in the wrong order.

On the other hand, I also fell into a trap because I don't type by the book. I don't use my right pinkie finger all that much. I twist my wrist and use my ring finger to hit a lot of those upper keys, so I'm trying to learn proper keyboarding technique and one of my fingers doesn't respond all that well.


I know, this blog is supposed to be about writing. I turned in another story for critiques on Tuesday, but I think I overworked the story. I've got good paragraphs in places, and the events fall in the right order, I think, I just feel like I wrote and re-wrote and edited this story too many times. I'm not expecting great reviews like I got last time.

Writer's Ego Boost

Last night I got one of the best crits I've ever had. The story was called 'almost perfect' by a writer I really respect. I'm stoked. I feel great. I actually can't wait to read the reviews on the copies I handed out so I can polish the story.
Another writer made an interesting observation: The first crits around the table can set the tone for the rest of the crits. Had I chosen to go to my right instead of my left I may have been torn down. Funny how the table mechanics work.
I'm off to a good day of editing.