Sometimes It's Just About the Deadline
I have my first public reading Saturday. I had chosen a piece of short fiction that I wrote, but my Mate indicated it might be too graphic for a mixed audience. It’s not bad, really. His limits are just, well…limiting. But I looked at it and thought about reading it out loud, in front of people I can actually see, and I’m not so sure anymore.
Me: “But I won’t be able to revise it in time and I wanted to read it and I don’t have anything else ready but poetry and that’s too short!”
He: “So you’re telling me you can’t work within a deadline? Isn’t that what writers do? How are you going to do this for a living if you can’t make deadlines?”
Dammit. He played upon my stubborn bone, so now I am busy trying to fix it (part of the reason for this lame post). It’s not that I’m against reworking something. It’s more a question of uncertainty. Is it too bold? Is it inappropriate? I guess that depends upon the audience. I have certainly seen much more explicit sex in “Best Short Stories of” compilations. But this is me, and I am not shy, but rather fiery and opinionated without the self-esteem to do much with it. I will be near to throwing up when I get up to read to those people, do I really need the added hassle of reading something sexy? Or should I be true to the story?
I think I might leave it, with only minor changes. I do want to be memorable; maybe I won’t need that gorilla suit after all.
It’s LC. You can say whatever you want. I used to go to their readings quite a lot when my man was the Big Writer on Campus.