Insecure Writers want to know: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

            Have I ever pulled out old stories and reworked them? Yep! Could I get all of them published? Not always! I did get one old YA short adventure story published and then created others that the editor liked and published. But still other short stories weren’t published. Why? Now if I knew that, I’d have many stories published, wouldn’t I?

            Writers use what they’ve learned and read to create their stories. Yet each story is different. And it can be difficult for the writer to see why editors prefer one story over another. Sometimes the writer has neglected to give the reader [or editor] key information in the story; some context, some explanation of why the reader should care about this particular character with this particular problem in this particular scene. I know I have.

            It is very difficult for writers to find what’s missing in their own work. This is why all writers need critique partners and editors. Someone who hasn’t read the story before can spot what might be missing in story logic or emotion. As the story’s creator, the writer knows everything about the story. It’s just that sometimes the writer forgets to tell the reader through story action or inner dialogue key pieces of the story puzzle.       

            I continue to forget to add “how the character feels” about a particular incident in the story. Emotion is as necessary to short fiction as it is to longer fiction. The reader needs to care about your protagonist in order to keep reading. Another thing I seem to do wrong is summarize story action in my full-length manuscripts instead of dramatizing it. Not all action. Just some of it. I think it’s because I write a lot of short fiction. As writers, we can’t show everything in our stories because that would be boring to the reader. But we need to show key scenes—fully fleshed out with emotion, dialogue, and action—whenever the protagonist goes through any emotional change or has a revelation about the story problem, either internal or external. The reader wants to be part of the story as it unfolds.     

All the luck with getting your own stories published in 2017. Thanks for stopping by Adventures in Writing and leaving a note. Please follow my blog. It’s greatly appreciated.  

This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s SupportGroup. We post on the first Wednesday of every month.  To join us, or learn more about the group, click HERE.