Review on Challenge Story 4

Story #4 is done! I pushed the completion date back to Friday because I missed a deadline on Book 1 That was “punishment”–by rearranging my schedule for October. The stories are due each Sunday and my soft deadline is Saturday. Now it’s Friday.

Maybe I’ll gradually push that back another day so I finish them faster.

I thought the story would involve a first contact, since that was in the original version, but it became more about the technology and its influence on creativity.

Story 5

The inspiration is a pink hat. I’m thinking historical, 1940s, because that was an era when men and women wore hats. The pink hat will belong to a woman, of course. Pink was one of the colors women liked to wear then (even though the iconic image is the woman in red).

I haven’t quite decided on genre yet, or really, what the story is about. But I’m thinking literary, or if not that, mystery, or even maybe a literary mystery.

Literary is an odd genre, and yeah, it is a genre. I think most new writers–and this was definitely something I did–gravitate to it because they don’t understand how to do genre writing.

Literary looks deceptively easy…make up a story about some characters.

Except it’s not.

Genre is about what the readers expect when they pick up the book. In a romance, we know we’re going to get happily ever after. In spec fiction, its the world. In literary, the readers want to see style.

I wouldn’t mind playing with style in a story and seeing what I come up with.

It’s also a protentional opportunity, since the paying magazines have top rates and awards can put me on the map.