I’ve been making some changes lately. They are the kind of changes that most people cringe when they have to make them…moving. Not just from the kitchen to the living room couch, but from Colorado to Arizona. The experts (whoever they are) say that moving is one of the most stressful events one can go through…I agree. The process is messy. It usually entails packing and unpacking unless you leave everything behind and start over. If you are filthy rich or your employer pays the mover to do it, then packing can be easier. You also have to make decisions about getting a new place to move into and getting rid of the old one, but worst of all you inevitably have to decide what things to take a what things to get rid of as you pack. You see, we all accumulate clutter. I usually fill a four yard dumpster with my clutter after three or four years of living somewhere. This time, after thirteen years, I had a lot more clutter it seems. Go figure. So I filled trash cans each week and borrowed space in neighbor’s cans if they didn’t fill them, which apparently is really weird in a lot of people’s eyes. I couldn’t get a 20 yard dumpster delivered or I would have…LOL
The same problem happens when you have to write a short story with a word limit. No one should ever have to have a word limit. It should be unconstitutional. The creative process knows no bounds…unfortunately, editors don’t care. If you want to be published, sometimes you have to make the sacrifices. Truthfully, there is some merit in being careful about what you write and what doesn’t really need to be in the story. Right now, Wendy and I are in the middle of a catfight/dogfight over what to cut on a short story with a 2,500 word limit that we’ve been requested to submit. It’s not an easy process to determine what is clutter and what is essential to feed the story…considering that we started with over 5,000 words. I suspect it would be even harder if I were trying to cut my words on my own. At least Wendy comes up with things she thinks are not important that I wrote (and I out of an abundance of thoughtfulness and courtesy do the same with what she has written.) It’s a bloody process….
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Greg
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