Margaret Fieland: Poetry and Prose

One of the stories I worked on recently was a “retarget” of a story that I had originally intended as a picture book but decided would make a better story. After some comments by an editor I ended up rewriting the ending of the story and what had originally been one line became a whole other scene.

Then I was bothered by the end of a story I was reading in my critique group when another member said a few words and suddenly I realized– Good old show versus tell.

My original ending might have worked for a picture book because in my head I’d “seen” the final scene in pictures. Yikes! There it was — show vs tell, the old “half the story is in the pictures,” the whole nine yards.

But I couldn’t see it until I’d done it for myself. Just “telling” me about it didn’t click — I had to *do* it.

I sold a short story for money, my first, to an ezine based in New Zealand. It’s a token payment, but I’m tremendously encouraged nevertheless. You see, it’s one of the milestones I set for myself. Hot diggety!

Oh, yes, and I’ve discovered I need to turn the lights on to be able to see the keyboard well enough to type. And here they told me I knew how to touch type ….

So I’ve actually been pretty good at keeping to my New Year’s resolutions, both the writing and the non-writing. I have been working on my stuff and submitting, I have been reading poetry and stories.

And I have been exercising. Absolutely amazing. It’s finally beginning to make a difference.

I realized recently how much more comfortable I am writing poetry than I am writing stories. I feel I have a better handle on when a poem is really working than I do a story. This should be no surprise considering how much longer I’ve been working at the poetry writing than I have at writing fiction. I just keep reminding myself that ‘practice makes perfect’ — or anyway, better.