charlie_cochraneI have a story, set on Jersey, which I've been working on for the last couple of years and which has got no closer to being finished. I've reworked the first bit time and again to pick up the pace but it still felt mannered, slow and unconvincing. Last night I had an attack of the bleeding obvious. Change it to first person point of view. So I'm doing that and, you know what? It's starting to work. Why didn't I do that in the first place?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-03 12:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-03 12:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-03 12:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-03 12:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-03 12:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-03 08:40 pm (UTC)I had one short that I wrote in first person present tense (I don't even like reading present tense). I finished it and then tried to 'convert' it to third person past tense and it turned into a stodgy mess. I tried to make it first person past tense without much improvement; and then gave up and went with the original version. I haven't tried to convert anything since.
Maybe I should try converting some of the stalled stories in the wip file. Even if the conversion doesn't work it might regenerate the inspiration.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-04 09:08 am (UTC)Maybe your short story needs something radical. Like being told in letter form or something equally out of the ordinary.