Lessons learned from this rerwrite

I am a much better writer now than I was three-years ago. I wasn't bad then, but I know more about how to construct a short story.

It distresses me that it was fairly easy to cut 15% plus of the story (okay, I knew I left some darlings in there, but the cuts yesterday were after I had eliminated most of them). I guess I bloviate a wee bit too much (like I did just then).

I still have problems typing "from" (usually comes out "form"). Also, I now cut out the word "back" as I type.

Novels seem to be my natural form of writing. Short story work is very intensive still.

I do well under the gun and with having defined parameters. Not so much with my self imposed deadlines, but external ones get me going. Also having a structure to work in helps me focus. When I write short stories, I tell myself the story. Then I try and find a market that it'll fit. Some markets I'd like to try have word count limits that I go beyond. While my newer short stories are smaller, I think having those boundaries helps.

For these edits I've rewritten many sentences to eliminate bloviation. I've done a little of that before, but this is the first that I've been so ruthless and thorough. Some sentences I've just loved met the axe because I could say the same thing with three fewer words (although I did keep some).

So I still need to cut at least another 116 words. Hopefully I can find most of that with a reread, but I'm getting close to eliminating characters which might lessen the concreteness of the story. Or I may have to cut some actions or descriptions, which I think I'm at the edge, or slightly on the too little side already.

This really is a rewrite of the story. While I've cut some places wholesale, some of what was cut found its way back in, but in a changed form. At one point I had to open up a previous version to regain some text I had cut. There were times when my word count was above where I had started for that session (usually met with calm and professionalism instead of a "OMG, I'm gaining, I'm not supposed to be gaining, I'm going to screw this up," because, you know, I'd never have that thought). Much of what was there before has gone through the washer. But I just want to say here, it is so much easier to rewrite and edit a story than it is to pull it whole cloth out of the ether.

Oh, and I really like this story. That should go without saying since I'm the author, but I like this one. A character that had been nameless has a name and became more of a character. I think he's the most interesting one of the ensemble now, but this is not his story, it's Bobby's. Bobby is the one that changes and has things affect him. I think Casey (that's the character's name) will show up again. He's in a position to do that. I don't know his whole game, but he has some of the best dialog. Very funny guy that Casey is.