Monday Struggles

As you guys know, I am now committed to doing the Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition.  It is proving to be harder than I had originally thought.  In the beginning, I thought, "No problem, throw together a little mystery story about a rugged but lovable hero who does.....something."  It all sounded great in theory; however, the word limit (4,000 word maximum) is proving to be difficult in two ways.

Before attempting a mystery short story within that tight word restriction, I decided to give a different style of writing a try.  We have all gone to see, or been dragged to, enough romantic comedies to know what is going to happen at the 'big plot twist'.  My thought was to take the run of the mill romantic comedy and turn it on its head, all in four thousand words.  Turns out, there is a reason that most romantic comedy novels are just that....novels! You need SO much space to have all that dialogue that it soon becomes prohibitive and needs to be cut, but you can't because it is the story.


The idea I had today was to go back to my roots; mystery, action, and suspense.  A perfect fit for my writing, to be sure, but then I run into the same old problem.  That damned word limit!  Monday was kind of a rough day in writing for me.  I faced a lot of failure and we all know how well I handle that (not so well, people).  I finally decided that I would write two stories.  A romantic comedy that will be completely new and challenging in its own way, and a crime story that will be both comforting to write, and harrowing.

Days like these I need to remember that failure can breed insight and innovation.  In that light, here is a quote to help you  get going....

"There is no failure, only feedback,"  Robert Allen.

Check back on Thursday for a NEW book review!!!   Until then, check out my Twitter page for news and such!!  ALSO, I want to give a quick shout out to my readers in Russia, thanks for stopping by guys :)

Cheers everybody