I’ve spent the last week working on a short story called Reading the Leaves. It’s for submittal to the AlternaTEAS anthology that I friend pointed out to me back in mid April. At the time I my brain was absorbed by the thoughts of gotta-get-costume-done-for-BayCon, so I tossed it to the back of my mind to let it steep. Sunday morning at the con, the lightning bolt hit. I had my idea. I came home, did some research, and began writing.
I chugged along over the last week pretty well, making my daily word count. I finished my first draft and sent it to my beta readers, although at this point calling them alpha readers would be a better description. Something was bothering me, although I couldn’t put my finger on what. I popped over to the post on the requirements and read it again. The story needs to be 5,000 words minimum. At that point, the story was 2,600 words.
Crap.
My first drafts tend to be minimalist in detail and more about getting the plot to hang together properly, so I know the word count will increase on the second draft. I also know that it will not double.
To solve this, I have begun poking the plot, trying to figure out where and what I can add to it. I just completed a tentative second pass, adding in some needed detail without changing the structure. I am up to 3,400 words. I have at least 1,600 words to add in before I can consider submitting. I’m sure you all know what I’ll be doing for the next few days.
Want me to read it again?
Maybe in a bit. I’ve got another set of comments to look.