So I finished this one a couple of days ago, but I forgot to write about it then, so I’m writing about it now. Hard to say much when this is the second in a series and the first one hasn’t come out yet, but I’m actually quite pleased with how this one turned out.
The first draft of “Christopher Columbus, Wildcatter” was honestly a bit of a mess. I think the main problem was that I was trying to cram too much into it, and when you look at all the Mythulu cards that I tried to use, it’s not hard to see how that could be the case.
When I workshopped it through my writing group, they suggested that I break it into two stories, and that’s exactly what I did—except that over the course of rewriting them, both stories took on a life of their own. The first one, “Christopher Columbus, Wildcatter,” more or less followed the original draft up to about the 2/3rds mark, but this story was only loosely based on the second half, and I ended up rewriting most of it from scratch.
I’m really happy with how it turned out, though, and I was even able to keep it under 7k words, which I didn’t think I was going to be able to do. These Christopher Columbus stories definitely follow a formula, though, so I don’t think I’m in danger of finding myself writing a novel when I think I’m writing a short story. Though taken all together, these stories probably will turn into something of a novel, which is fine.
I’d post an excerpt, but this story is out on submission, so I don’t want to void the first publication rights. You’ll just have to bear with me until the first story is out!
