Well, I guess it was nagging me so I sat down and finished “Alpenglow” and it came in right around 5300 words. I’m pretty happy with the way this story turned out. I had been fighting it a little so this afternoon I erased the final third and rewrote it cold. Of course an entirely new ending presented itself to me.
A better ending.
Isn’t that the way it always works? *sigh*
One problem was I had a character doing something dramatic but the more I thought of it the more convinced I became the drama was entirely all on my side. (Me, Drama Whore!) The conflict was there and necessary to the story, but I let my own emotions come into play and force him to do something he would never do under any circumstance. At least…not this time.
(I remember some weeks ago when I was at the coffee shop and I wrote this scene and told my writing buddy about it. She looked at me as if I were crazy. Even she knew it was wrong. God bless writing buddies!)
I wasn’t being true to him. My fault. He knew it, I didn’t. I finally came around to his way of thinking. He’s happier now. Me, too.
Funny. I had every intention of taking the rest of today off. I went into the garden and drank a little raw whiskey while sitting in the sun like a lizard. It was nice while it lasted then I got up and went inside and made a beeline to my laptop.
Guess I wasn’t finished after all. It works out well, though. It does free up time next week I can apportion to something else, writing-wise. That’s good. Less stress is always welcome.
Huh. I feel I accomplished something significant today. Happy? Hm, perhaps.
More like relief.
Hoover's Corner 