We’ve written the first draft of a story using the prompt death in a small town. How can we edit the story, improve it, and what can you learn from this process?
Rebecca’s Notes:
- I want to go look at stories where this loss worked well or the idea of going insane worked well
- I’m not sure I incorporated the small town thing very well
- I know what I tried to do with the list in between the journaling, but I’m not sure it worked at all
- Is mine a story?
- To Katelyn: The last one felt impactful because you had built up this character to show what her choice meant to make. This one was more like: take the baby or no? And of course she would take the baby. Like, I felt like it wasn’t as meaningful and/or powerful because, even though the character felt young, it just made sense to take the baby. Plus, I have no idea what they’re going to do with it or what saving that life means
Katelyn’s Notes:
- I love the voice in this story, and it really addresses so many things about the reality of grieving. It doesn’t really reach any sort of conflict or action, but it does read really well as the beginning/prologue of a larger piece. It’s a very wise piece of writing that captures this universal part of being human.
- The critiques I received on my story were expected. It doesn’t reach its full potential, and could use a lot of reworking so that the choice at the end holds a little more weight. It just doesn’t stand on its own at this point.