24-Hour Short Story - Day Two

I worked on the story in the moring and did word counts periodically as I went along. The limit was 1,000 words minus the title and my contact info at the end. The last count I remember was around 670. With the deadline getting closer, I focused on just writing and when I finally was happy with the story, I was shocked to see I had 1,374 words and I would need to cut more than one-quarter of what I had.

Ultimately, I got it down to exactly 1,000 words and send it off. I was 5 minutes late and I knew it would not be accepted, but I wanted to complete it. Angela, from Writer's Weekly did send me a confirmation noting the time and letting me know it was a disqualified entry. After reading all of the tales in the rules about how people try and fool her, wrote back an honest reply: I knew it was late and I was editing like a mad-man to get down to the limit. I enjoyed it and I would definitely enter the next contest. I hope that she was surprised a bit by an email that was out of the usual.

As for my story, I've not worked on it all week - work has been too busy. I did send my submission to Darren to review and told him of my goals:

1. To get it much more polished and fitting the 1,000 word limit. Just in case the next contest has the same word limit. Not that I'd resubmit the same story. You can't do that. But I want to prove to myself I can do it.
2. To take the longer version, clean it up and send it to Darren for review.
3. Expand the longer version to perhaps 2,000 characters and see where it takes me.

But when can I work on it? And book discussion is coming up again soon. Can I get it done?

"If he has the time, doctor. If he has the time." - Mr. Spock

(written 4/27/2007; back-dated 4/22/07)