Personally, I was so excited for this challenge. I’m a stay-at-home mom with three kids under five years old. I have practically no time for writing. Getting to write for a whole twenty-four hours seemed like a dream come true. Honestly, I still feel like that. I wish I could write all the time–all day–every day. Maybe someday…
But even though I was excited for the challenge, I was totally burned out by anxiety. Yay, stranger interview challenge. 😦 So, I had dinner and went back to the hotel room and slept until 9 am the next morning. By the time I had breakfast, my twenty-four-hour story challenge had become a seven-hour story challenge.
Truthfully though, I’d hacked out an outline the day before so it wasn’t entirely from scratch. And once I got working on it, I got into the groove pretty quickly. I had to change POV and tense at one point, but after, it all just spilled out. I’d intended several other events to take place before the ending, but the story ended itself. The climax came to a head, the denouement happened, and “the end” just seemed right even though I hadn’t followed my outline.
Thank goodness, because I’d skipped lunch, was functioning only by the grace of Red Bull, and desperate for a meal. By the time I finished my late lunch, it was time to email my story and hustle over for the Presentation of Illustrations. I hadn’t even had time to proofread my work.
Just over 5,000 words in less than seven hours. With a little more polish, I hope “Under the Bloodwood Tree” will catch an editor’s eye one day soon. Overall, the experience (minus the stranger interview) was exceptionally satisfying. =3
Amy Henrie Gillett 