How Can I tell If My Short Story Is Working?

Here is something I wrote several weeks ago but didn’t post:

I’ve been working on a particular short story for several weeks now – coming back to it after a day or two, a week or so, revising it etc. This is the way I normally work only with this story I’m finding there are a lot more changes I want to make each time and I find myself wondering if this means the story is not really working. I’m reminded of a painter working in watercolour attempting to capture those first fresh brushstrokes and layers as well as the white space and how easily the painting can be overworked.

The piece I’m working on came from an unrealised idea for a novel and some early writing I did around it. So I know a lot about the characters which is a good thing I think, and also the story which is perhaps a bad thing, perhaps this means the story I’m writing now is not growing organically enough. Has it found a life of its own, I ask myself?

Some stories write themselves, this isn’t one of those. I read recently someone saying it’s a bad idea to use what might have been a novel for a short story. But maybe there wasn’t a novel there and that’s why I’ve ended up with a short story. Or maybe I feel like breaking the rules anyway. Now I am too far in to tell.

What I do know is that I believe in the story. It’s about ideas that are important to me and interest me. It is about the unseen connections we have with other lives and the struggle to find order in a chaotic world.

So how to judge it. The way I see it there is only one cure: put it away for as long as possible so that the next time I read it I might just be lucky enough to see and hear it with fresh eyes and ears. Then perhaps I’ll know if it’s working. .

Now: Yesterday I took my story out and read it – straight away I could see what was unecessary in it, particularly at the beginning – that there were words and phrases that were clogging things up – I know this happens because of  my tendency to over explore mood/weather/setting etc.

I cut them out. I found the white space. I killed one or two ‘darlings,’ and worked harder to get at the truth. I absolutely know the story works better. It’s much closer to what I was aiming at. Is it any good? Good enough I say, as good as I can make it – in the end if it pleases us, if it feels complete, the best it can be then it’s time to stop. Time to let our story go out into the world and find its place.

Do your work then set it down. Let others praise or blame. ~ Maezumi Roshi