Because I am retooling my novel into an original property, I decided to write some short stories to work on my word craft. All I ever wrote, even though that was years ago, in school was short stories. I believed I had a handle on things. I've returned to writing about 4 years ago, and, in all that time, I've never really dealt with rewriting to produce a final draft. I have a friend, hereby known as my arch-enemy, who is a retired editor. She has been a great help and is now my most hated enemy. My goal was to write a short story of about 2,500 words. I wrote the idea draft, and then the first draft came in at about 3,000 words. I was really pleased with the story and so was she. Then, the rewriting began. It turned into a once fun party that no one wanted to leave. By the 4th draft I had reduced the WC to around 2200 and believed the story was much improved. All my ...friend...would say is "trim it down more". So, I started throwing people out of windows, kicking them out of doors and eventually burned the whole place down. Reduced the WC to 1,800 in the 5th draft. My friend then said, "It's still crap, but, there's less of it." I almost exploded, but, she is doing me a favor by helping, so, I just sat down and did a full rewrite. You know what? She was right. I could now see the story better. Reworked sentences, restructured elements and make real improvements. Now, the story shines. What I've learned is that I should have focused on trimming the word count first and then do the rewrite. Needless to say, after this bloody nose, I am going to learn more about how to approach a proper rewrite. Godspeed!
No, it was based in the Dungeon and Dragons 'Forgotten Realms' setting during the 'Time of Troubles'. The MC, supporting cast and story were original. I had already put a lot of work into the magic system and other elements of the setting for my story when I was inspired by postings in these Forums to go ahead and strike out on my own and make everything original.
