Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I had made very little progress until recently. While I kept reading, I was not writing as much as I should. However, this past week has been different: I spent quite some time outlining my short story.
As I mentioned in my last post, the story began with an image that I believed would make a great ending (assuming I created some more dynamic, complicated characters). So I started to think about what sort of plot would lead to a climax that resembled my image. That led to a very basic plot skeleton.
However, once I began to create and describe characters and explore their history and motivations, I realized that my plot would not work. In fact, this process of going back and forth between characters and plot has changed the story dramatically. Even the final ending is not what I originally had in mind. Nevertheless, I believe the overall story has improved.
Looking at my notes, though, one weak spot remains. There is magic within the short story. And while I have thought about what magicians can and can not do, and how they would have learned and evolved over time, I still am not quite satisfied with the "rules" of the magic. This is what I hope to work on over the next week, as well as put a bit more detail into the outline. If I am very lucky, I will actually start writing the story--an exciting and scary prospect.
And I apologize for talking around the details of the story instead of simply discussing them directly. Hopefully, once the story is completed, I can correct that, either by getting it published (an unlikely but thrilling possibility), or by posting it here (far more likely, but I would greatly welcome the feedback).
