How Goes It?

I've got my second draft back from my first round of betas.  It was nice not needing to dedicate the entire weekend to rushing to complete my story (like the Flash Fiction comp and later rounds of Short Story).  It's under wordcount (something I struggled with a LOT during the FF comp) and writing it was pretty cathartic.

I'm looking forward to doing some more revisions tomorrow and getting the next edition out to beta readers.  Just polishing from here.

I think for how many people are competing, 10 from each group for round 1 is the right thing to do (especially since it's in the official rules).

I like the idea of getting a choice, but at the same time, I think that might put me into choice paralysis.  I'd be trying to brainstorm both ideas to see which is better. As someone who got Historical Fiction for my very first assignment in FF2023, I thought I was going to be ruined by the genre but my story came third in my group. Part of the joy of a fixed prompt is the absolute magic of creating something despite starting from the spot of "what the *eff* am I going to do with that?!" (For this round I was drawing blanks for a whole lot longer than I was comfortable with.)

(Writers Playground gives you a choice between prompts, I think.  I'm going to try my hand at that one in February.)

I feel very good about the story at the moment; experience suggests that my feelings will oscillate over the rest of the week.

I was thinking that I was not going to measure up this time around with drama. But am now getting a feeling for the story I wanted to write, will see. Have fun, take chances, and drive fast!