Bad Story

Today I decided to retire one of my stories. And by retire I mean dispose of it (i.e., not waste time sending it out anymore).

This is nothing new. I probably have dozens of stories that I’ve retired. What is different is that this story isn’t an old ‘trunk’ story that I’ve been sending out for years. This is a new story, one which I wrote only a couple months ago. After sending it to a couple of markets with no real interest being shown, I’ve taken another look at it. And I’ve decided it is a dud.

Why? It is hard to say but after rereading it, its not really interesting. Additionally it is a bit confusing in places and the concepts introduced are not really all that new or exciting, though they seemed to be when I started writing it. I think I really got fixated on one aspect of the story that’s kind of interesting but probably should have been taken in a different direction. And that fixation got me attached to the story.

Anyways, another one for the waste bin!

And I’m also strongly considering mothballing my first novel though that was considerably more work than a story. Still thinking about that one.