A Writer's Notebook, Day Six-Hundred-And-EightyTwo

I finished writing the first draft of my newest short story, and I am happy about the way it turned out, though I am always a bit uncertain with my fiction.  I think it is, in some ways, a more traditional seeming story, though it has a lot packed into it and is written in ways that display some unique approaches.  I do feel it demonstrates a movement in my fiction towards a certain understanding of how to write a more cohesive narrative without giving up many of the other things I find intriguing, though I don't know if that is really what I mean.  I think it does a good job of blending a more traditional narrative frame with ideas and approaches that I find intriguing and which are not found in most mainstream fiction, but that is my impression.  It may be that another person will see it as very strange, or I may be wrong and they just think of it as fairly normal in terms of narrative structure at least.  I am certain the actual story will not seem typical to most readers, as it is a bit fantastical, though in a more existential sense than most people use that, I think.  I don't want to get into the specifics, but the story involves questions about dreaming and reality itself, though I think it is done in a way that kind of sneaks up to some extent.  I just finished it, so I have to see what I think when I get to rereading it.

I am a bit nervous what to begin next.  I want to start a new story tomorrow, so I can keep up with the work.  I feel that scheduling work is the big key for me, which may in part be about my learning disability, but that is a different issue.  I just think it is important I keep going, and I do have a few ideas for stories, though I am not certain about them all, and one feels a bit too familiar in certain ways that make me feel it is not worth pursuing yet.  I am confident I will have an idea when the time comes, and if not, I will find a prompt or something to get me started, if need be.

Poetry continues as well.  I suppose I am talking about the fiction because it is new to my regiment, and I am quite pleased to find that I've already gotten two stories in the past couple of weeks that I have been working on them.  I don't know if they are all that good, if I am honest, but I know the best way to get better is practice, so the answer if they are not is the same as if they are: keep writing.

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