Hello and welcome to my blog. New here? TLDR: I am a fiction writer and I co-manage two writing communities, including a long-standing group called Write Club. And I regularly publish our group’s writing prompts to inspire others and find new writers who are a good fit for our group. In this blog post I’ll share some thoughts on deciding when your story or novel is done. And I’ll provide the latest Write Club writing prompt. Ooh yeah. It’s a doozy.
When Is a Story Done?
My husband and I are both writers. This is our dinner table conversation right now. He is feeling done with working on his novel. As in, he is SO ready to move on to his next project. He has done two full rewrites. Several people have already read his book and provided really great feedback. He was happy with his most recent draft.
And now some random reader who fancies herself an expert editor (yours truly) is reading through it word for word and providing yet more feedback. Ouch.
Does he really need this?
Well, I may be mildly biased, but yes I think so.
Here’s an analogy. You’re writing your master’s thesis. You’ve read it twice through. Okay, maybe you were pulling an all-nighter one of those times, and the other you found yourself skimming a bit, going “yeah, yeah, yeah.” But you read it twice!!
Do you really need someone going through word for word and nitpicking about how this word could be replaced with that word and calling out little errors, minor issues like word echoes, hard-to follow passages and redundancies?
Yes. You do. If you want it to be not just good, not just a finished work, but polished to a fine sheen like your grandmother’s silver tea set.
I’ve said it before (see #5 in Five Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Author), and it is worth repeating. When you think your work is done, read it again. And then what? Read it one more time.
Can you fiddle with a piece of writing forever? Sure. Of course you can. You can also overwork it, so it loses its freshness in the process of being honed. So don’t beat it to a pulp. But especially for a novel-length work, I recommend having at least two people critique your work — one for its overall effectiveness and one eagle eyed editor who will look for all those little nitpicky things you might have missed — followed by at least two full readings once you call your work “done.”
Oh, and if you’re looking for that eagle-eyed editor mentioned above, feel free to reach out. As I mentioned in my last post, I’m now available for hire as a contract writer and editor.
Our Next Writing Prompt May Take You to a Bad Place
If you haven’t seen our recent writing prompts, here’s a quick intro. They tend to be one-word prompts that could be taken in many different directions. For example, here are a few of the fairly recent ones:
I love writing prompts that leave it all wide open. Writers can run with these prompts whether they write dark fiction, literary stories, magical realism, romance or any other genre.
With this one, we’re going a bit more specific. Our new prompt is: bad people
And yet, my friends, even though this prompt might point you in more of a direction than, say, “stain,” it’s still a wide open playing field. Where will you go with it?
You could write a story from the perspective of a pre-teen church-going girl who has the sudden realization that even in her church there are bad people. Oh wait, no, don’t write that one. I claim it, because that was my actual experience. Just kidding. Go ahead and write it. Because no two writers will ever address the same topic the same way.
Or maybe you want to write a story of an abducted child who escapes his captors and then must try to identify what adults he can trust as he finds his way home.
To me, stories all start with “what if?” What if a character has been swindled for years into thinking her father was an upstanding member of the community, only find out that he’s part of a network of thugs who are ruling the lives and finances of everyone who has dealings with them?
What if your character just assumes that everyone in the local police force is corrupt, and is mostly correct, but discovers at a key moment in the story that there is one officer who is committed to law and order as well as serving the community with integrity?
Source: Pexels
The ideas you can run with based on the “bad people” prompt are endless. Your character can come up against any number of obstacles in trying to solve their most pressing problem, and have a gauntlet to navigate in determining who to trust. Good people might appear bad but turn out good, and vice versa.
The world is your oyster. Go write.
When you allow your mind to wander and let settings, scenes and characters take shape in your imagination, there is no end to what you might come up with. How do you get started on a story? What are your favorite ways of getting into creative writing mode? I’d love to hear from you.
Learn More About Write Club
Write Club is an online writers’ group for short story authors, with a focus on writing for mainstream publications, literary journals and genre magazines. We are committed to publishing our work in the many professional publications and short story anthologies accepting submissions. Some of our members are successfully published, and others are on their way, with the help of the honest yet caring critiques from our workshop members. In fact almost all of my published short stories were written from Write Club prompts.
How Does the Community Work?
Each month we launch a new writing prompt. Write Club members are required to write a short story based on the prompt, and then review and critique each other’s stories. These requirements are central to who we are. Every writer needs an outside eye to help them see what they may have missed and to provide perspective. This invaluable feedback can make all the difference in taking a story from promising to published.
The next phase is to revise our stories based on the workshop feedback, and (optionally) do another round of critiques. This method helps us to prepare our manuscripts for professional editors.
Is It Possible to Join Write Club?
While we purposefully remain a small group to ensure that we can all read each of the other stories that are submitted for critique each month, we do occasionally welcome in a new writer with experience who is looking for an online writing community for mutual support, writing critique and comradery. If you are interested in exploring whether Write Club is a fit for you, visit us in our Discord server or reach out via my Contact page.
Note: If you enter our Discord server you will be in a waiting area where we can chat with you and learn more about your interests.
Here’s what’s expected of our members:
- You should already have a strong foundation in short story writing, excellent English skills, and a desire to continue your development as a fiction writer.
- You should have the goal of publishing your work in professional publications.
- You must be ready to commit to writing one story each month.
- You must be willing to provide helpful feedback to other writers and support their journey as well as your own. We are all required to critique every story produced within the community.
Looking for Prompts and Writing Resources?
If you’re just looking for inspiration, watch for our writing prompts on jaynalocke.com. Feel free to use them to inspire your short stories. You can post them on Hive, Medium, Vocal, your WordPress blog, or wherever you like. Note that we do not offer critiques for those who are not members of our workshop. This is just for inspiration!
All we ask is that you provide a link back to our prompt post that inspired you so others can be inspired too. Thank you!
I love to share tips and ideas about creative writing! Here are two treasure troves for you:
- You can find many of my tips and resources on my website, in the On Writing section.
- I also share writing tips in The Ink Well community on Hive. See the complete catalog for the full list of articles.
Have fun and keep writing!
Featured image source: Pixabay
About Jayna Locke
Jayna Locke is a Minnesota writer who has had a lifelong love of fiction. Her short stories have appeared in a range of literary journals, including Great Lakes Review, Portage Magazine, and Bright Flash Literary Review, as well as several anthologies.
Her collection of short stories, Somewhere in Minnesota, is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kirk House Publishers, and indie bookstores. She is reachable through her contact form at Contact Jayna.