My class workshopped the Car Salesman story this week. It went pretty well. Some people got it, some people came close to getting it, and some people didn’t get the ending at all. One girl thought I hadn’t finished it and that’s just where I left off. Another person had a problem with the fact that there wasn’t a motive for a character’s suicide. And also, the thing is riddled with spelling errors, missing words, really awful dialogue punctuation and a ton of awkward phrasings that need to be cleaned up.
Dr. Clark’s comments were most helpful. He saw right through my struggles in the beginning of the piece, and noted exactly when the power of the story changed. It’s kind of freaky, though, that a reader could pick up on the same issues I was having as I was writing it. While I’m spoiled and pouted that there were comments other than ‘dazzling, truly dazzling’, it was good feedback and gives me fuel for revision.
And now that I’ve gotten that one out of my system, I can dive into writing the shark story that has been in my brain since my trip to the New Orlean’s aquarium last January. I think the entire story exists so that I can use the term ‘echolocation bastards’.
Writers are dumb, frivolous creatures. But then, you knew that already.