Writing Ups and Downs

I’ve been working on ashort story the last couple of weeks. The guidelines said a minimum of 3,000words, which is a little less than most shorts I write, but I thought I coulddo it in about that many words.

The first week, I thoughtI would never get to 3 thousand words! It seemed like I wrote and Iwrote, and the word count barely moved.

Now I’ve reached 3k,and it seems like the story will never come to an end! I’m so close, andyet I’ve got to go through so many details before I finally end it. I ratherdread working on it, but if I don’t, it won’t get done. It’s not going to writeitself.

I just noticed thedeadline is August 1st, so I’ve got some time. But I can hardly waituntil I can revise the rough draft into a 2nd draft. I’ve alreadyseen places where I’ve used too many words, scenes that could be shortened.

I think my problem isthat I’m not sure of the subject matter. But they wanted stories where a zombiepresence is the new normal. So I’m writing zombies. I’ve only ever read onebook about zombies. I used to watch the Walking Dead, and that scared me halfto death, some episodes. It’s a fine line that I’m walking to be writing aboutzombies.

Well, I’ll be that muchhappier when I get it done and can submit it. Then I can return to working onmy longer Work in Progress, which is waiting impatiently.

PS. I finished thezombie rough draft Wednesday night. The word count is now 4,500 words. I’m takinga couple days off from it before I start revisions.