How to write a short story in a week, Day 4

Well, I finished the brainstorm draft. I saw one ending to the story, but I didn't write it down in any detail because at this point I'm pretty sure I don't want to use it. If this was going to get to novella length, then I would probably use it, but I feel the ending, as I envision it, lacks punch.
So today is the first wave of sculpting. I'll have to do a good job and take my time because I want to get it to my first reader tonight, but that only gives me two hours. It will probably happen tomorrow. So give your first draft to a reader, someone you trust, but don't tell them anything about the story until you get their gut reaction. It helps if you can train them to give you an honest gut reaction. Then explain what you want to do with the story, and if you're really lucky, they'll have suggestions on how to get there.

Writers of the Future

I got my rejection from Writers of the Future. I made the quarterfinals, which is what I expected. Ok, what I really expected was a letter mid-April (I sent this on March 31st) telling me to never send them a story ever again, but that's just me. I'm close to sending my third quarter submission, probably next week, but I will probably wait until the very end. The story I'm working on this week may prove to be a stronger story.

How to write a short story in a week, Day 3

This just isn't working out this week. I still haven't finished that brainstorm draft. Fortunately the more I work on it, the better the language gets, the closer it is to becoming sculpted. That means that I'll have to do less sculpting on the last part ofthe story. That's a good thing.
The original plan was to work on the first draft on Day 3, second draft of Day 4, then give it to my wife, and do a clean up draft on day five. So I'm a couple of days behind. I'll catch up.

How to write a short story in a week, Day 2

Well, I only got about two hours worth of writing done yesterday, and I may only have an hour today to finish to brainstorm draft. I went to bed last night not knowing how I'd finish the story. Fortunately it came to me today. I had intended to read the brainstorm this morning and start cherry picking the good ideas. That will have to wait until tomorrow. Sometimes brainstorms can take a couple of days. In two hours I only managed 1,600 words. With luck, I'll get to 3,000 words today.
Why set a word count goal? One, the more you type, the faster your fingers get, and two, it allows you to flesh out some ideas as they occur to you, and allows you to explore interesting side notes of the story. Yes, when you're pitching a novel you may only get a paragraph, or less, but when planning it you need to spend the time to savor it. Jay Lake once told me that it's better to read a novel in a short story than read a short story in a novel. The third thing about the word count goal is that it will give you more source material to work with as you sculpt the story. The more original genius you put on the page, the better you'll be.

How to write a short story in a week, Day 1

This is the last week of an eight week course I'm taking on the short story. The goal is to produce a short story every week. This is good advice for new writers, but can be an intimidating goal. This week I hope to get at least three hours a day on my eighth story. I also have to read and critique close to twenty stories by the end of the week, so I'll do my best. Here's the plan for Day One.
Write the first draft. I spent Sunday thinking about the topic, then a title jumped out at me, and a simple idea that gave the title context appeared, as well as the main character, one supporting character, and a source of conflict. Think of Sunday as Day Zero. Just thinking, letting the brain work stuff out, and sleeping before you put anything to paper. Monday, Day One: write the story down. If you hate yourself you can call it a vomit draft, but if you like yourself, call it a brainstorm draft. Throw in relatioships, background details, personal histories, anything, as long at it is germane to the story. If you have a sketch of a plot, follow it. Try for 3,000 to 5,000 words.

"Vomit Draft"

I tried to avoid it, but this is eating me up all day as I try to re-design one of my stories for WotF. I know a lot of people refer to the 'vomit draft' in their own writing process. It's a disgusting phrase, and it's even worse in a workshop. Imagine being asked "is this a vomit draft?" by someone critiquing your work. That's just one step above "I'm sorry I don't have the copy you gave me. I used it for toilet paper and common decency dictates that I flush it instead of returning it to you."
Workshop critiques are full of phrases from the Turkey City Lexicon and other such compendiums. It's a coded internal language used by writers to exclude others. Every group does it. None of the items in the TCL are personally insulting as "vomit draft." Why do writers have to hate themselves and their work so much that they can't say anything nice about it?

First Drafts

A lot of writers have rules. Most of these rules apply to the stories, but there are a few that pertain to the art and craft of writing. One of these "rules" is that all first drafts suck. Anne Lamott makes this claim. I think it's bullshit. Why do writers tell new writers this? To make them revise and revisit their work. The very least a writer can do is check for spelling errors and gross grammatical mistakes and fix them before asking anyone to check the draft. This isn't easy, because a sentence that you think is perfectly fine, probably a bit long, but you don't want to break it up into smaller 'Dick and Jane' sentences, is a comma splice error. You can't please every grammar maven, but you can fix most of the big mistakes with ease. No, first drafts are works of genius. There's only one reason to put words to an idea: because it's a genius idea.
There is a catch. Some works of genius keep their genius quality for centuries, others not so much. Chances are your first draft will not retain that quality, the genius aspect of the story doesn't stand up to the test of time, probably for an hour or two, but that's it. That's the art of writing: putting bits of genius on the page.
The craft comes later. Checking grammar and spelling and making sure a girl you describe as having green eyes doesn't have blue eyes later (unless that's vital to the story) are drudgery. Painters have to clean their brushes, sculptors have to sharpen chisels. Writers have to spell check. No, the craft of writing involves taking the genius first draft and giving the genius more momentum, so eventually the obvious genius quality will last until an editor writes you a check for the piece.
Do art and craft mix? All the time. Find the joy in moving phrases to their proper places in your manuscript. Treat your work like poetry, because it is a work of genius.