I took the day off work today and went into New Orleans with the husband. He had a bit of business to do, but then once that was concluded we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for lunch--always seriously awesome. Even more awesome because we didn't have to pay for it--a business associate of Jack's took care of the bill. Ya gotta love that!

Last night I pulled out the box containing all of my old Clarion stories, i.e. sixteen copies of each story with the critiques from my fellow students included. It was truly fascinating going through the stories and the critiques, on a number of levels: re-reading those stories written over six years ago, reading the accompanying critiques, as well as reading the occasional personal aside included in those critiques and remembering the relationships formed with those fellow students. In particular I read one note that gently chided me for writing so many stories and not putting more effort into submitting fewer but more polished pieces.

I think I ended up writing seven stories... perhaps eight. I'd have to really dig through files to be sure. And I disagreed with that comment back then, and still disagree with it today. I tried to write a wide variety of types of stories in those seven or eight stories, and I figured that I would get the most out of Clarion by getting as much input and critique as possible on as much writing as possible. Clarion is not the place to create final drafts.

So, as a result, I have a box full of six-and-a-half-year-old shitty first drafts, but based on some ideas that I still really like. One of the stories sold to Age of Reason a while back, two of them the entire story would need rewriting. A couple more need some pretty major overhauls, and one is great up until the last page where it really sucks ass. I may do some work on that last one. It probably needs another ten or fifteen pages in order to not suck ass. The others I'll probably stick back in the box for a while. However, even though the stories themselves are not submittable as they stand, I still learned a shitload from those stories. I also have three stories out in circulation right now, and to echo the sentiment of Clarion alum Daniel Abraham, it's pretty damn cool to see that I really have gotten better since Clarion, even after a several-year hiatus in my case.

This day: 1998
This day: 2001