I was cleaning out some old file boxes yesterday when I ran across the submission card for "The Bank Robber" which is in the new issue of Needle. Believe it or not I wrote the original draft back in May of 2000. Over the next two years I submitted that story to six different markets, and after collecting six rejections I finally put it in a drawer and tried to forget about it.
But it wouldn't let go of me. Year after year, I'd put that story out and rewrite and rework it from different angles but I never felt confident enough to submit it anywhere. Then last year I was looking for a project to work on and pulled that story back out of the drawer. I'd always written the story from the point of view of a twelve year old boy and this time out I wondered what would happen if I wrote it from that boy's point of view as an adult. So I wrote this:
"'I made love to a bank robber once.'
Silence cracked around the massive dining room table. Mouths dropped open, food fell into laps, and a long stemmed crystal goblet spilled blood red wine across my wife's expensive lace tablecloth.
I suppose my own face mirrored their surprise. Why had I blurted out such a private moment of my life, especially to this self-centered group of assholes? Shock value? Something to stem the flow of their narcissistic conversation? Partly, but mostly it was to scare up that trapped look on Sally Mandeville’s face."
Suddenly I had two stories and what a blast I had weaving the two of them together. The ending came as a total surprise to my blood thirty mind but it was a perfect fit for the story I'd written. And boy, was I scared. It was one of the longest short stories I'd ever written coming in at a whopping 8300 words and where the hell do you submit a story that long. I stuck the story back in a drawer and started searching for markets.
After about a month I contacted Steve Weedle and asked when Needle submissions were going to open again and would he possibly be interested in an 8300 word story. His reply - "Not if it's great, which I assume it is." Well, shit, no pressure there. I thought it was great, of course, but would he? When the submission door opened I took a deep breath and sent "The Bank Robber" back out into the world.
Fourteen years and my story is finally published. It's also taught me a great lesson. If you believe in a story, keep working on it until you find the right voice to make it sing, even if it takes years.
9 comments:
Congrats, Sandra. I'm ordering my copy of NEEDLE right now.
The career of that story makes a great story in itself.
I believe in keeping older work and rewriting. Self-editing makes a big difference. Congrats!
Thanks, Al!
I've also noticed that the more I write the more I understand what's working and what doesn't, Jacqueline.
I wrote a story in 1975, while I was a high school senior. I revised it in 1981, again in 1990, and yet again in 2005. In July 2005--more than 30 years after I wrote it!--the story was finally published. Best of all, it sold to a pro market at pro rates.
Always have faith and never, ever throw anything away.
Wow, and I thought I took a long time, Michael :) And you're absolutely right about never throwing anything away. I've found myself using bits and pieces of old stories to write new ones because I've finally found a character who fits the story.
Thanks for posting this. I have a story I love with a similar history. Your post made me realize I was so attached to the story that I wasn't changing things that need changing.
I always enjoy your blog, but today's post is especially good.
I have that same problem, Leone, and some days it's hard to change what you've written even when you know deep down that you have to.
I have one like that. Thanks for the idea of changing the POV.Maybe then...
Sometimes when you look at a story from another POV it flows better, Patti. Or that new character can see something the original couldn't.
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