Best writing advice I ever got: Never do anything half-assed, courtesy of one of my literary and teaching heroes, Michael Martone. Wrote a harmless, trifling shorty this morning, too light to please me. So I tried again. I had just enough time to make a more interesting start on another story idea before running to and from other things, nonstop, for the rest of the day. But when I came back to Effort #2 tonight, nothing more would come. So instead I spent an hour on #1, replacing general references with concrete detail, stripping out repetitive sentences, polishing every phrase. It’s still a harmless trifle that may never see another ray of sunshine but it’s a much prettier trifle, dammit.
Working Title: For His Pancakes
1st Sentence: What she wanted—what she needed—were his pancakes.
Favorite Sentence: And as time went on, as breakfasts piled up, she got used to his passive people-pleasing, his habit of leaving the kitchen looking like the aftermath of the Dresden bombing, his refusal to see movies or attend concerts.
Word Length: 389
Photo by Lazarova.p, August 2009.
Daily Shorty 
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