I’ve been on novel deadline for years now. Often, in the breaks between deadlines, I’m recovering from the intense work of writing in the mornings before my day job and the evenings after my day job. So anytime anyone asks me to contribute new work to their project, my standard answer is no, I can’t.

Recently I was asked to contribute microfiction to a journal for a themed issue called Southern Gothic. The guest editor who reached out was from New Orleans, so instantly my mind clicked to my novelette “Because of the Bone Man” which was published in my second short story collection When the World Wounds. I asked if they did reprints and pulled an excerpt from the novellette.

There’s something about the short, the small, the miniature that encourages me to play. There was editing required to make the excerpt stand as a whole. Radical cutting was also required to make it the length required as microfiction. It was exciting to be done with a piece of work after one writing session—a truly incredible feeling. After I submitted the work, the only significant edit was a request to tie the end closer to the opening. It was a wonderful suggestion and would move the piece closer to being a standalone work of microfiction.

The success of that effort got my mind rolling. I’ve been saying no to new projects all this time because I know what it takes to create new work, but what if I used a remix approach to creating new work. What if I took three random sections from three different stories of mine and put them together. Would it trigger a new piece of fiction that was all its own? Could I leap over the creation soup that I usually swim in for drafts by jumping straight into problem solving? Would the juxtaposition of different texts trigger my problem solving brain to create a smooth seamless story that is at once new and remixed? I don’t know, but I’m now intrigued to try.

Onward!

—K.

IN THE MIX

Over the last few years, I’ve been stumbling through novel drafts wondering how writers keep the flow going. I had a sense that I needed to be working on the next thing, but didn’t have the bandwidth. For me, the answer has been experimenting in miniature. Now I’ve got a few projects In the Mix. Here’s how it’s going:

• YA NOVEL: I enjoyed the easy flow of working on line edits for the first 70 pages of my novel. I’ve now dipped into the next 70 and there’s much more elbow grease required. I wanted to continue tiptoeing through line edits, but there were questions about consistency and remixing of chapters to shorten the section and support forward momentum. I knew what it was time to do. [Drum roll.] I had to update my plot chart. Having a chapter-by-chapter recap of the book’s plot points is the best way for me to keep track of the story’s underpinning details. After an emotional evening of sadness (I really, really didn’t want to have to go back into the chart), I tightened my belt and launched the plot chart update. It wasn’t so bad, lol. I’m not done yet, but I’m feeling much more informed and ready to tackle switcheroos and remixes while making sure the details are consistent and the narrative is smooth. The goal is to get this 70 pages done this week.

• PICTURE BOOK: My agent thinks we’re there with the picture book. She had a few more tweaks, plus a suggestion to center the main character a bit more at the end—which I thought was a great suggestion because it definitely helps the emotional arc payoff. Edits are done, reference photos were added to the manuscript and draft 8 is back with the agent. I’m waiting for confirmation from her that she’s sent it out. Once I have that info, I’ll slide the next picture book manuscript over to her for her review.

• CHAPTER BOOK: My agent was less than enthused to hear that I wanted to write a chapter book. She said that publishers aren’t asking for those. Because they are so short, they are generally required to be a series and that constitutes a financial commitment that many publishers are hesitant to take. I am undaunted, but it did prompt me to rethink my approach. I’m thinking of something a bit more functional and something that leans into science and nonfiction. Planning to experiment with my idea a bit before sharing it with my agent.

• MIDDLE GRADE: My agent did say publishers are constantly looking for middle grade books. I had shared a YA outline with her some time back. She pitched the idea of adapting that outline to become a middle grade book. I actually thought that was a good idea. I love the idea of using existing ideas and letting nothing go to waste. We’ll see if that pans out when the smoke clears on this novel and these children’s books. I also will have to decide if I want to dive into the chapter books or the middle grade idea first. It is all to be determined.

• CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS: The first of my two creative collaborations is underway. The second remains under consideration.

• MICROFICTION: Besides some clean-ups, I received one edit from the journal publishing the microfiction. I’ve been in the swirl of paperwork with them—contracts, licensing doc for the art, independent contractor docs, direct deposit forms. The forms are longer than the fiction, lol. Can’t wait to see the layout and look forward to sharing the link when it’s up online.