Update: SotShoStoWriMo...Mo?

After giving this some serious thought over my lunchtime pimento cheese sandwich (thanks Elaine!), I've decided to give the month of March a chance to make up for the failures of February.  However, I don't think I'll actually keep it under the SoTShoStoWriMo banner, since that would be unfair to the original idea, so I'm going to be calling this the "draft of March."  And that's really going to be my sole intention, one nice draft of a story, preferably the one that I started in February, so that I can show a net gain from ShoStoWriMo, even if it's a month late.  If you're with me, and many of you said you would be, then the same thing goes for the "draft of March."  Finish the story, send it or a link to me and I'll post.  Or you can follow along silently.  Whatever you want.  A man in my position should not make demands.  Now excuse me while I empty out my recycle bin.

_______________________________

Pencils down.  Turn your paper over.  Pass all of them to the front of the row.

That concludes the designated timed portion of Syntax of Things Short Story Writing Month.  From the emails and comments I've received, at least a few of you have been successful in finishing at least a solid draft of your story.  Congratulations.  I'll make good on my promise to post the story or a link to the story if you're willing to share.  Just let me know.

As for me, well...the news ain't all good.  Ain't all bad either.  I got off to a great start.  My long roadie to south Alabama helped me solidify what I thought would be a fairly straightforward tale, one that should have been easy to pull off in a month.  Should have known better.  A week in, I found myself stuck, unable to convince this character that he should do what I needed him to do, namely, be less of a stereotype when that wasn't what was called for in the story.  So I dropped the draft in the pending file--along with about a dozen others of various shapes and sizes--and started on one that I've been thinking about for years, hoping that the magic of a deadline would somehow help to revive some of the passion that I once had for this story.  And it worked for a good 2,000 words.  I really like the story; the idea itself is one of the best that I've ever had.  However, as the days ticked down, I knew that there was too much there, that 2,000 words was just a drop in the barrel and that I wasn't working on a short story at all.  Somehow, I'd crossed the line from shosto to no and there wouldn't be time enough to do anything about it.  So with just a few days left in February, I turned back to the original story but without luck.  Nothing was coming together and by Sunday afternoon, reality set in.  I knew that I was going to fail, so much for the one goal that I'd set for myself at the beginning of the year.

But all is not lost and shostowrimo will live on.  I'm going to push through the disappointment and beat that character over the head with my mouse until I get results.  March is longer.  I have a head start on the word count.  I will finish it.  {cue sappy inspirational music}

And it looks like I may have the workings of a novel on my hand. 

Again, comment section is open and ready for your slings and arrows, your I can't believe you didn'ts.  It's also open for you to link to your own story or to tell why you didn't.   

Next year will be better.

Comments

[Varg]

If it's any consolation, I didn't meet my word count goal and my main concern was finishing the story and meeting deadline (must be the old journalist in me) rather than creating a refined piece of art. I guess that's the fun of it.

[Corey V.]

Good god - I thought I was alone.

I've got three stories, all started but not close to finished. I'd get about 1000 words into it and - SURPRISE! - find myself unconvinced that any of the characters could do anything more than highlight my hackiness. So I'd quit, start anew, bring the good parts back, lose track, search for the ending, wonder what the hell I was doing, and then - thanks to a vacation - give up completely on all three as individual pieces.

So, yeah. ShoStoWriMo will have to go on into Ma. ShoStoWriMoMaAprMay. Who knows.

[Justin]

I had all good intentions to participate but I didn't even put one word to paper or word processor. I have been working on a few new songs - the response to those is so much more immediate - but didn't quite finish any of those either.

Anyway, you shouldn't view it as a failure. You wrote and that was the whole point, right? So congrats.

[Cynthia Closkey]

I didn't even start, so I believe that everyone who made an honest attempt is a winner of some stripe.

[callie]

I didn't participate in February (as I was wrestling with my existential I'm not really a writer just a blogger crisis), but now that I've come out on the other side, I'm ready to give it a go.

Any chance that March can be the new February?

[lucina]

heh, and to think i was the only one. i got about a half page in and then it all went to the dogs. my premise felt solid but i had no narrative arc. (o the irony)
good thing i got a few poems finished up so as not to feel like a complete failure. and, as the old man once said, "tis better to try and fail.... than just to fail."

[Bill S.]

I got two pages out of me, and then spent the rest of my energy trying to buff that two-page turd into a diamond. Oh well.

[Varg]

Narrative arc. Narrative arc. Narrative arc?

[Varg]

After Googling, I DO remember that from 9th grade English.

[lucina]

it's all about the rise and fall, baby

[tom]

hope you don't mind if i jump in - i was inspired by your post to dash off a story (really, i'm just lazy. i cannot "work" on a story. i just write it. if it gets finished, good. if not, forget about it)

it's not much of a story (573 words according to the Open Office Word Count Thingie), but it's here at

The Finder