h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi RK

Saw you pop up on the kent story thread the other day, dropped by your larder and it was bare. Leave it a few days and there’s something there!

Didn’t mean to add a rhyme in there – no really I didn’t! No, no, really!

Liked the moon dance piece – BEEP! Really made me laugh... the bits you didn’t get to hear on the live broadcast. Would have looked a lot better in the annals than ‘One small step...etc’ and made a few kids laugh in history lessons.

In the snippets you’ve posted so far there’s a good sense of humour getting through. Keep it up.

Will you be posting any longer bits and bobs? Saw that you’ve tried your hand at the Kent thingy, any of them going to appear? And, what’s with the disappearing work? You’d be surprised how nice people are with the feedback – as I’ve found (was worried about that myself!) – it’s always positive. Don’t be scared post, post, post.... you’ll get to learn, which is what its about.

As you were... and see you round.
WordBlind

Thanks for dropping by WB, these Portfolios are a bit like an answering machine, aren’t they?
I’ve not posted any longer stories, although I have written a couple. One of them is August’s entry in the Kent Comp. I will not post it here, although I did send it to someone I can trust to give good comments. Not going to post any old stuff as I want to concentrate on the future.
I’m trying to stick to very small works here as a way of cutting out extra bits that dilute the story.
I might move up to 150 works soon.
Liked your dear story, in fact I practised some editing on it. Stripped 200 words out, but I probably lost the essence of your story, so I won’t tell you what I cut.

RK

Hey, You saying I write flabby?

Only joking... cut away RK, cut away! It's a good idea hadn't thought of doing that.

Glad you liked the story...

Think you most probably found the words I had to play with. On the first write I had just over 1500 words; got down to around 600 with an edit. Then added some calories and put on a few pounds - getting the words to 750. In the first version there’s some scenes that I cut. Tried to put them back in again with the lower word count, but there was too much going on for a short story (already mixing past and present and didn’t want it to get confusing in there) decided to keep the extra words for description and an attempt to hike up the tension with repartitions. Just hope it hasn’t gotten to flabby.

If you do write something longer, do make sure you get that friend of yours to read the unedited version before you cut, cut, cut. Then do your edit and get the friend to read it again. You’d be surprised just how often you can get rid of something that another reader thinks is central to the story. If they ain’t read the first version, they can’t comment on the edit. Been there, and been shouted down... cowered away and added things back in – they’re usually right (not all the time... I’m the writer, its my story!) if you know what I mean.

Best!

WordBlind

I think a lot of writers have excess words in their stories, the art is to find them and have the heart to cut them out.
I always keep the two versions of my stories, cut and uncut. After a few days I read the cut version and if it says what I wanted it to, I leave it at that.

Your stories isn't flabby really! It was nice to be able to take the knife to something I hadn't written myself and had no emotional attachment to.

My August story hovered around 500 words for a while, but eventually I got it up to about 700. I suppose there's nothing in the rules that says I couldn't put in a 60 worder. I'm quite enjoying those.
It started off as a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive but then it got dark, and I drove home.

RK

ps
I don't have any voices in my head. Apart from the usual crowd that is.

Who said (… Peter!…. No I ain’t gonna introduce you… no… get back to work… you’ve got that murder investigation… your to busy…. I said NO!) anything about (… that goes for you too Blossom… no RK won’t know of any jobs… stop crying!... well you tipped the boiling water in to his lap… so he touched you arse… stop crying) hearing (… now don’t you start Amy… you took that bleedin’ gold coin from the scarecrows hand… no don’t blame me… no, I just wrote what you told me!... don’t go there Amy, don’t you dare.) voices?

Gotta go can’t (SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!) hear myself THINK round here! (Gees… now where did you come from… oh I see… and then… oh no… no, no go on… I’ll get a pen)