Me? A plotter? You must have mistaken me for....

Finally received the promised edits for the short story the editor wanted to see in Jaunary. Time got away from her, I absolutely understand....

At the moment I'm smack-dab in the middle of editing the story per her suggestions (how did we ever efficiently edit without the little bubbles in Word from track changes? Geez) but am taking a quick brain break to share something I just realized.

In her note to me, she said..."The story has nice bones. It just needs a little work."

I'm not hung up on the "it just needs a little work" part. That much is obvious--it's my first fiction story in a few years and the first to make it past a slush pile onto an editor's (real!) desk.

What shocks me is the "nice bones" part. Bones, here, to me, suggests "plot" or "structure"--which is something I've never considered myself good at. In fact, it's the reason I've often quit writing stories--because I don't have the structure to know what comes next. I've always fancied myself a character-driven writer (which plays somewhat in a posting I've been wanting to do for several weeks on the merits of character vs. plot-driven stories. Sometime...)

Me? A plotter not a pantser? Oh, come on...!

Anyways, all for now. I've got edits to finish....

Beth