Stuck and Frantic Writer

This week I’ve been diligently trying to review and rewrite several of my short stories for a collection I want to get to my editor before self-publishing them.

One made me crazy…. I was definitely stuck. The beginning of the story did not justify what I wanted the end to be. Okay, then, Mitzi, The Writer, if the ending is so freakin’ important to you, then you know what you must do: rework the beginning. I did just that three times…no, wait…four times. It still wasn’t the right beginning for the ending I wanted. Acck!!!

So what did I do? Did I change the ending? No, I did what any self-respecting writer does: I read for a couple of hours. I read Neil Gaiman’s short story collection: Fragile Things. And then I went back to writing.

I was both inspired and discouraged by Gaiman’s genius. But I still went back to writing that darn story. THIS time I changed the ending. And, oh crap. That didn’t work with the beginning.

Now what to do…what to do?

I did the best thing possible. I took a nap. Actually, I decided that if I could “dream” my story that would help. I know that sounds sooooo New Agey, but sometimes it does work. So before I dropped off (and don’t make fun of naps; they’ve been proven to generate creativity), I thought about the general idea of the story and how to make the everything come together. And just before I fell asleep, I got it. By Jove, I got it! And to mix Brit quotes: it was like a man on a flaming pie came to me and said, “Do it this way.”

So I’m doing it “this” way because: