"Near"

I'm having a brief moment of feeling brilliant. I feel that it should be recorded. I've also had a lot of caffeine.

I just finished my first draft of my Aspen story. That, in combination with school being over for real, is making me feel real high. Okay, and probably the iced coffee.

Titles and endings are hard. I think I forgot that, since I haven't completed a short story in, oh, four years. I think I did my usual dropping-the-story-off-a-cliff ending because I wanted it to be over, but maybe also because it's a tense scene. The "back" arrow on the keyboard of my laptop is breaking. I don't know if I should read too much into that.

The good news is that even if it's not the best-most-perfect-thing I've ever written, it's the longest and least picked-over (26 pages!). I think I've progressed in my need to do things perfectly and only-once. But I'm still over-using dashes.

Heather gave me criticism and I focused on listening and not defending. I want to be able to do the same during the workshop--my goal is to take the criticism with enough grace so that it doesn't break my spirit and make me think I'm not really supposed to be a writer. It's supposed to be a vacation, for god's sake.

I decided to call the story "Near." I don't know how I feel about that yet, but I'm sure as hell glad to be getting it printed and mailed.

Eee!