Thursday 18 February 2016

Short Story Ready to Go - Almost...

I'm always surprised to discover my editing skills have improved.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have a short story that I wanted to revise to submit to Woman's Weekly.

My dilemma was that the story was too long for the 1,000 words, nor would it work at the shorter length, but it was too short for the 1,800 requirement.

So my revision became a rewrite to add words- about 400 in fact. It isn't a lot but I have to admit I didn't think I could do it without ruining the story.

I didn't quite finish last week, as a final few paragraphs needed to be looked at, even though I didn't think I could squeeze any more out.

But I did!

Actually I read through the whole story yet again, made more adjustments and my word count went up to as much as 1830, and then when I did my final edit it came back down to 1805.

Fixing the problem...
So where am I now with it?

Yesterday I printed the completed manuscript out and the cover sheet, addressed the envelopes and did a last minute read through.

That was when I saw it. No not the dreaded escapee typo, but one short line that didn't read clearly. So I'll sort it out and reprint, and read through again...

But it will be posted Monday. :D






Image courtesy of supakitmod & www.freedigitalphotos.net

16 comments:

Patsy said...

Good luck with it, Carol.

Wendy's Writing said...

I looking forward to the post which tells us your story has been published, Carol :-)

Maria said...

I'm with Wendy! Sounds like you have worked very hard on this story. I bet there is a real sense of accomplishment too?
Good luck!

Carolb said...

Thanks, Patsy. If it gets accepted I'll have achieved what I said was impossible on #writingchat. :)

Carolb said...

Fingers crossed, Wendy. :)

Carolb said...

Yes, you're right, Maria. I do feel I've accomplished something with all I've done with this story.

Now, it's send it off to the WW cupboard and wait for an answer either way. :)

Rosemary Gemmell said...

All the best with your story, Carol - you've worked hard on it and deserve success!

Keith Havers said...

Good luck, Carol. Did it get posted?

Carolb said...

Thanks, Rosemary, I've put in a lot of work to get it to the 1800 words without losing the original story. Every time I went back to it, I found more I could use.

Now it's out of my hands and I can get back to other work. :)

Carolb said...

Yes, Keith.

I sorted out the final issues, printed it out, read it through, made sure everything was in the envelopes and correct.

Our local post box will have been emptied by now, so it's on its way to the WW cupboard. :D

Teresa Ashby said...

I'm so pleased you've sent it off, Carol :-) Good luck! xx

Carolb said...

Thanks, Teresa.

If it gets rejected it won't be because I didn't do a good job with it. :-)

liz young said...

Good luck, Carol.

Carolb said...

Thanks, Lizy. :-)

Eve Webster said...

Good luck, Carol. Hope it goes well.

Carolb said...

Thanks, Eve- it's been fifteen years since I first submitted a story to Woman's Weekly- that was rejected within two weeks, but I've learnt a lot more since then. :)