Phew!

Finally submitted my entry for the Bloody Scotland Short Story competition.
Having written, quite quickly, one version from the murderer's point of view I then wrote a second from the detective's.  In third person.   Then spent three weeks putting it into first person.
Then realised that the first version had the stronger voice.
And although I could go on editing forever, it really had reached a good point.
So, phew and fingers crossed until the middle of August.

Testing, testing.

On my husband, who I don't usually bother, but I think this is done.
Spent much of yesterday refining the final third, careless of word count, knowing I could tighten it. Went to bed knowing, after two attempts, the final conversation wasn't what I wanted.  Still wasn't this morning, at 7 a.m. after another couple of hours (to be fair I was re-reading the whole so as to keep the flow).
Halfway up the road for the paper, a phrase.  The perfect phrase.
And bingo.
So.  I think it's more or less done.
Now I have to strike that balance between sending it off too soon and spotting glaring inconsistencies or giving it a daily fiddle.
But in the meantime, I'll let my husband read it.   Before or after the Cup Final which, he tells me, is more important.
I know my place.

Surrounded by chaos

Yesterday slight niggly feelings about my finished Bloody Scotland Crime story, partly engendered by reading Ann Cleeves, spurred to greater dissatisfaction by Peter Temple.  Not that I'd even dream about attempting his wonderful, laconic Australian bloke dialogue.
But something of the sort would make a difference.  When I write DI John Pettinger [Change of Focus] I can do dialogue that sparks ... I just needed another tale to tell.
On waking this morning I realised I had a story.  Wondered about telling it from Pettinger's point of view.  The cop rather than the culprit.  Try, for veracity's sake to stick to the same end result.
On my way to buy a paper I got the opening lines.

The carpet fitters arrived before nine.   Hall, stairs and landing.  I got marooned upstairs while they chatted, about girls and restaurants, while they knifed and peeled and pulled and unrolled and hammered and nail-punched stuff in place.   While they hoovered and hoovered all the bits up.
Nearly three in the afternoon before I could get downstairs again.   But I had two thousand of three thousand words written.  Nowhere near the denouement, but I prefer to prune rather than pad.
A good day's work!

Persistence to the rescue

On Wednesday, at 2,350 words, my Bloody Scotland crime story was looking better (even though I didn't know who dunnit).
Late Thursday, a sudden rush of inspiration, a garbled final paragraph badly typed but enough to show direction of recent thoughts.
Friday morning, early, before we went away for the weekend, a tidying up.
Friday afternoon, in a Suffolk hotel, after five hours of mulling while heading south and east, the first hint of satisfaction and that magic moment as I realised I'd not only finished but managed to encompass the specified theme, of 'Escape'.
And now, four sessions later. I'm glad to say it's not far off done.  2795 words or thereabouts.

[The picture shows sediment gathering on an aluminium plate as it undergoes non-toxic etching]

a.n.d.... sunk

All gone pear-shaped.
Felt flat.  Re-did bits, new beginning, went panicky, turned on Track Changes (probably too late) and then became aware I was only making it worse.
Best thing to back off and get on with something else, but when that state of mind occurs everything gets kamikaze.

Slowly ... but surely?

It's growing - 1954 words.  Many added, many taken away.  I'm resisting using Track Changes, relying instead on that old "if you can write it once you can write it again" argument, passed on via a Wimbledon Art College student of Prunella Clough, which I adopted when I was printmaking.
There's printmaking in this story too - Annabel, who's story this is, is a printmaker.

I do have an inkling of the end, and it is an end that will resurface in my next novel which currently has fewer words than this story, but which will definitely feature Luke Darbyshere as main character.