I’ve decided to set my short story aside and work on something else, for several reasons:
Firstly, every change I make seems to reveal two more things that don’t work. This is probably a normal part of editing, but it’s starting to wear me out.
Secondly, I realised I built this story around a deus ex machina. I can think of ways to make it work, but they all involve throwing away changes I’m fairly attached to right now.
New goals
Editing even a 4000-word short story took a long time; for now, I’d like to work on some shorter things that I can finish more quickly.
To that end, my new writing goal is to write or draft one short (under 1000 words) in the next seven days. I’m also keeping the target of five or more writing days a week (as well as my reading goal).
Speaking of reading goals: I read Agatha Christie’s After the Funeral this week. As usual with Christie, I was very impressed by the way she handles all the relationships between characters.
Good luck and happy writing!
Jenkins Rising 
3 responses to “ROW80 Week 4: Stepping Back”
Sometimes a course change is exactly what’s needed. I’ve elected to shift from novel revisions for a few months, and concentrate on a 13K short story. It’ll still take a while, but I can feel it taking shape, and it will be good warmup for the full-length project.
May the May change do you good!
So far, the change seems to be working. :-)
I really appreciate your and Bev’s comments; it’s much easier to step away from the story now you’ve reminded me I can come back to it.
Stepping back gives you a break – I’m sure when you return to the story you’ll have new insights. Our brains tend to work in the background on those problems. All the best in the week ahead