Wednesday, March 14, 2012

SHORT STORIES - THE REVAMP

I found myself reading through short stories I'd written - wait for it - over a decade ago! Oh my gawd, I don't wonder now why they got rejected. After my first reaction, EMBARRASSMENT, that I sent them out in the first place and my second reaction, LAUGHTER, I read over them again with a fresh eye and with something I have now that I didn't have before; EXPERIENCE.

Some of my earlier stories lack satisfying conclusions, others have some good paragraphs in them that I could create a new story around and others, well let me just say, 'What was I thinking?'

I've decided to do a list, two in fact, one list of hopefuls that I've got loads of material to work with and another list which although needs a lot of creative work are possibilities.

Well, I'm off to revamp.

Keep writing....

20 comments:

  1. Best of luck with the revamps!

    I've kept my early stories - some because I either have, or will work on them and improve them but others are just to reassure me I have improved since I started.

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    1. Thanks Patsy - I like the reassurance reason :-) That's a good point you made there.

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  2. I'm sure after the revamp some will find a home, good luck with them.
    It constantly amazes me how much room for improvement I can now see in my old stories, or how I'd do something completely different. But as you say that's experience.

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    1. Thanks for the confidence boost Carol! I'm really glad that I did keep all those old stories; something to work with when I'm out of new story ideas.

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  3. It's always good to take another look with fresh eyes. Good luck with them.

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  4. Good luck with your revamps - I think when we look through our old rejects years later we can see straight away what the problem with them is :-) x

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    1. Thanks Teresa and yes, you are absolutely right. x

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  5. Great idea, Diane - I often go back through those embarassing early stories that never deserved to be sent out, never mind published! And it's always good to know we do improve over time (hopefully!).

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  6. Thank you Rosemary. I agree whole heartedly it is good to realise we do improve over time, lol, and yes 'hopefully'. That comment made me smile :-)

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  7. That's pretty much how I felt when I went through my file of completed works. Man. Don't know what I was thinking back then. It's good to see how much we've improved, right? :)

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  8. Hey Diane. I use a lot of my old stories for my RomanticFridayWriter posts. So fun to find something and revamp it. I'm with you! D.

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    1. Hey Denise, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. It is good - gives me something to work with when my mind is blank for new ideas.

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  9. Good luck revamping and writing. I feel like you do about your writing when I look at some of my old college pictures and wonder WTF especially when it comes to the hair styles and clothing.

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  10. Thanks Mr Shife. Oh yeah those old photos...lol

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  11. Hi Diane, good luck revamping. I know what you mean-I read some old stuff this morning and found myself cringing with embarrassment-time to rewrite it properly!

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    1. Thank you Anita - it is good to know I am not the only one. :-)

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  12. Happy revamping, Diane. Course in ten years time you might just look back and smile at the stuff you're producing now, but let that be a spur to you. The Virgin Soldiers is an all-time best seller, but the author - Leslie Thomas - can't bear to look at the darn thing now without squirming at his mistakes.

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    1. You just may have a good point there Mr V. I can only hope not, lol. Interesting about Leslie Thomas. Thanks, as always, for leaving a comment. :-)

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