short story meme

[swan_tower]

You know what? I think my short-story-producing brain needs a kick in the rump. So I'm going to meme for the first time in a while, with something I picked up by way of yhlee and mrissa.

Give me the title of a story I've never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got submitted to magazines, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I'd been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know.

(Incorporated Mris' edit -- the original phrasing had to do with "posting" stories, because it seems to have started among fanficcers. Also, as per Mris, I make no promises that these won't turn into real stories. In fact, I'm kind of hoping they will.)

Comments

[srallen.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite of your short stories was "While You Were Out". I mean, I'm fairly jaded when it comes to "modern" fantasy (too much de Lint when I was younger, I guess) but this was a breath of fresh air to me, and so familiar. Merging the fantastic with a temp job without being too clever or heavy-handed? Brilliant! It was obviously self-contained but it really left me wanting more.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That one was tough to write because it, like "Selection," is kinda-sorta second-person pov, and that isn't something I experiment with a lot. But it was the only good way to show the contrast between the temp and the person she was subbing in for -- at least, the contrast as the narrator/temp saw it, which may not be what you'd call reliable . . . .

[srallen.livejournal.com]

Great, now I want to read that... :)