Today I completed my draft of “Scrapper.” This is one of the key stories in my anthology Gardens in the Cracks. Now I have to decide which of the others I should redraft. I am leaning towards the title story, but may go after one of the shorter pieces as I am getting close to the end of the school year, and that is always a busy time for me and my students. But the point here is: Scrapper is drafted and in pretty good shape.
I approached it in a different manner than I usually do. I wrote the beginning 18,000 words, then wrote the end because I just had it all laid out before me ready to churn out. I normally write from start to the finish, so this was awkward. But I feel it actually came out better because I was writing when I was passionate about the events happening. It was just that bridging between the two that was the tough part. However, I had set a level of writing and that forced me to continue at that level.
