I had an epiphany today, and it’s a frustrating one: I progress the plot in my stories too quickly. I over-foreshadow and get to certain plot point entirely too soon.
I wonder how to fix this. I’ve tried stretching things out by removing some of the foreshadowing and adding description, but it doesn’t seem to help much. Such is the life of a writer who is too stubborn to take creative writing classes (or even read books on how to improve your writing). Not that I think my writing is bad, per se, but it does need some improvement.
My solution for now? Keep writing. I may not write every day, but I try to write at least a few times a week on various different projects. I’ve currently put my novel and my poetry projects on hold to focus more on the short story submission that’s due by the end of the month. If I can get that done, even if it gets rejected, it will be one more accomplishment I can add to my slowly growing list. Publish something? Check. Publish something else? In progress. Submit something of my own for traditional publishing? Depending on what happens after my submission is sent in, sooner or later I will. Get paid for something I published? Check. Get paid for something traditionally published? One of these days.
Notice that I didn’t put a “possibly” or “maybe” or “hopefully” for any of those. I’m not hoping. I’m going to do all these. It just takes time.
AJ Mullican, Author 