I’m glad my story was one of the revised drafts that came up for workshop because I felt like I’d hit a ceiling: I’d revised it as much as I could but I knew it still needed work. “You’re close,” was the way Dr. Bailey put it after class yesterday.For this draft the workshop was less about believability and what works and what doesn’t and more about how things were working in my story, what was working well and what wasn’t working so well, and the feelings and impressions it left with the reader. Dr. Bailey tried to get the class to look at it in a different way, to look at my characters like real characters (plausible and developed) and to talk about how well my story accomplished the things short stories are supposed to accomplish (like the feeling the ending left the reader with). It was really exciting stuff.
My ending is still weak. Based on what everybody said in class, I’ve decided what I really need to do is rehearse more for the ending earlier in the story, move up the details about Alan’s religious life and add more about his relationship with his wife to bring out how lonely he is. Dr. Bailey told me he wants to conference with me before I do anything else to the story, and I’m eager to hear what he has to say. This story’s “close.”
