"Sea Change"

All this weekend Leah's been working (her third job). As such, I've been left to my own devices...so I sat down and worked on my latest short story. Today I finished it. Usually when I'm done, I think I'm done...this time I know I still have a long way to go (and many revisions ahead) before I am comfortable with it.

"Sea Change" is really weird. I'm happy about that, it turned out strange enough--but I think the middle bits are weak. I'm happy about the beginning 5 pages and the last 6 or so pages. So, that means 12 or so need improvement. I don't think I'm going to unload it on my buddy Paul, because I don't think he'll get it (frankly). Leah might read it tonight, and I don't think she's going to like it either. I like it. I don't think I'm going to take this strange path again, but it's nice every now and then (even just as an exercise) to make word and sentence combinations you normally never would.

This one broke my "story a week" roll that I had been on. But I think it was worth it to take my time. I'm worried because I'm not sure what my next project will be. With the last two stories I had my next idea by the time I was nearly done. Now I'm done and I got nothing! Maybe it has something to do with the unfinished feeling I have for "Sea Change." Who knows. Anyway, I'm going to veg out for a while. My brain is tired (thanks a lot time change!).

UPDATE: Well, I came back after picking Leah up from the Dome and worked on it some more. I bumped it up to 22 pages and smoothed out a few wrinkles. There is still one (newly added) paragraph that's going to need attention...but I feel much better about this story. I gave my editor (Leah) a copy to read. I predict that she won't like it (it's very, very strange) but we'll see. I didn't tone down the weird...I just made it more palatable.