Waiting to Jump: R. Fryar Final Thoughts

[Grim Dreamer]

WIM Week 5: Final Thoughts

Flash Fiction and The Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Cake

So many things happened last week. Thanksgiving happened. That's always an event. I ended up working additional days out of town. I busted through and finished the first 50,000 words of my paranormal fantasy novel FLIPPING for NaNoWriMo. And my twin sons had the big one. The big birthday. SIXTEEN.

In honor of their birthday, I promised them a cake. One of my sons is gluten-free, as am I, so when it comes to cakes, I have to make it. This is non-negotiable.

They asked for ... Lemon Layer Cake.

I hate Lemon Layer Cake. I don't like to eat it, and I don't like to bake it. At this time of year, the lemons are terrible. Despite my very best efforts, the filling is going to taste like someone took vanilla pudding and added lemon-scented furniture polish. And these cakes never put on the volume they are supposed to achieve with the whipping of the egg whites, meaning I've got to make four cakes instead of two. Then there's the frosting. It's about as sticky as a hot mess can get.

This year was an absolute disaster. Not only were all those things wrong with the cake, the filling proved to be so slippery that I had a complete cakeslide, and had to cross-pin the cakes with a pair of chopsticks to keep the whole mess from falling apart. And the taste--well, let's just not go there. Suffice to say, I did not want the thin slice I had, and would not go back for seconds.

But everyone else did. I think they were mostly being nice, but every last one of them, including my somewhat hard-to-please sons, thought it was a very good cake. In fact, inside of two days, they'd eaten it all.

Which brings me to WIM and my short story, Waiting To Jump.

When I first saw the prompt five weeks ago, I felt like I'd just been asked to make Lemon Layer Cake. What on earth was I going to do with such a static image? Worse, what was I going to invent from that lemon and serve in 1,000 words?

Waiting to Jump, much like my Lemon Layer Cake, is not a great thing. There's barely enough tension to hold it together, even cross-pinned with a bit of allegory. The prose is so-so. The characters are pretty flat. It's cloying with the overly sweet ending. In short, I wouldn't dream of sending this thing out anywhere without a complete overhaul. It's simply not a good story.

But ... it's not terrible. And moreover, I think some of the other writers enjoyed it too. As a Lemon Layer Cake goes, it sufficed. It got through the five weeks as a whole story. And while it may have avalanched a time or two from one side or another, it's held together somehow by the concept. That's not too bad.

That's what events like WIM are for. Turning lemons into Lemon Layer Cakes. Or lemon pound cakes. Or lemonade. You might not always be happy with the final result, but it's a learning experience. Nothing wrong with that. And the result can't be as bad as that Lemon Layer Cake!

https://rebeccafryar.com/blog/

[Grim Dreamer]

WIM Week 5: Final Thoughts

During this event, I kept track of the time I spent on the story and on writing up blog posts. I wanted to check this statistic for a few reasons.

1)   This event took place during NaNoWriMo. My usual NaNoWriMo word count for a month is between 75,000 to 120,000 words.
2)   I have become more aware of time as my writing career has developed. I am working toward my eventual goal of being able to put out one new book a year. I've been taking notes on how fast I am, and how fast I need to be.
3)   I have a goal of writing a short story a week. Now, that's not editing it and revising it, but I wanted to find out how many hours a week it might eat up from my writing time.

These were my results. They reflect nothing but the numbers I kept track of during the writing of the story and blog posts.

Final Time (Draft to Finished)

0.16 hr rough draft
2.25 hr redrafting
4 hr self-editing/revising
1.5 hr processing general CP feedback/brainstorming
3.5 hr revising based on feedback
2.5 hr revising based on second CP round

You can double that amount when it came to preparing the process notes, blog posts, etc.

I spent almost 14 hours on the story, and around 28 hours on getting the process notes written up with the blog posts.
To put that in a little perspective, I draft at the rate of roughly 750 to 1,000 words an hour. Had I used all of that time for my NaNoWriMo project, I might have added 31,500 to 42,000 words to my current draft of 53,000 words. In short, I'd probably have a full first draft of a novel.

Ouch.

So...would I do WIM again? Well, not during NaNoWriMo. But at another time of year? Possibly. Word count isn't always a good measure of productivity or of time well spent. I got to chat with other writers, do a lot of critiquing, talk craft and process, and develop a habit of putting up a blog post a couple of times a week, which I needed to do. Plus, I needed to spend some time reading and resting after an intense summer and fall of revisions. The jury is still out on whether I do better recharging by drafting a new novel or drafting and revising a short story. The edge goes to the drafting without revision, but I'm such a solitary writer in general, that doesn't surprise me!

So, what about my idea of a short story a week?

Well, if I look at the time spent for the short story, in practice, I would probably spend 10 to 11 hours. Some of the rounds of feedback would go, and maybe all of them. I don't often get a CP involved for a short story. Plus, short stories are great places to explore new techniques, try a different genre, mess around with POVs you wouldn't dare try in longer fiction, not to mention trial things you are personally working on in your longer work. Not to mention they are fun to write. I'm still planning on trying to write a new piece of short fiction every week.

Last week, while talking to my art instructor, I asked her to hold me to my New Year's resolution for painting next year. I feel I've been spending too much time on still life paintings and portraits. While I want to continue working on those, I also want to add whole body drawings and paintings, landscapes, and buildings (interior and exterior) to my practice pieces this year. In short, I'm expanding my range. I want to draw and paint pictures of scenes from my novels. I have an idea that they might be nice things to share with readers. It's just for fun, but if you can't have fun with your art, why do it?

In the same way, I don't always need to be writing novels. I need to be writing short stories, flash fiction, and novellas. By experimenting with these various forms of fiction, I may learn what stories are suitable for longer exploration, and what stories are better told in a condensed form. I'm not saying that short stories can't form the backbone for longer fiction, or that longer fiction won't have moments that can make a great short story. But the ability to know what form fits a story best is something that comes with practice.

So why not get that practice with short stories? The worst that can happen is that you get to practice your prose. The best that can happen is that stories start flying in and out of your head like a butterfly migration.
 
I like those odds myself.

https://rebeccafryar.com/blog/

[Dani Frank]

Rebecca you are a beast and a writing inspiration. I feel like I need to hit whatever the writing equivalent of a gym is when you talk about all that you are taking on and churning out. I'm bookmarking your blog and adding you to a dream board or something.

[Grim Dreamer]

LOL. Thanks.