"Thrift Finds" is the first original story I've written in a long time, and part of me doesn't even want to call it a story. In my head it's a lot closer to a drabble, but that's only because I think stories should be greatly polished before they can even be called that. Writing it was a bit of a struggle for me. I definitely felt like I was shaking off rust in the process of it, and although I eventually did get into the swing of it, I would be lying if I said I was 100% happy with the outcome.
The perfectionist mindset when it comes to writing always comes the worst when I'm writing straight to digital. I do have a drafting notebook that I actually did use for my thesis project, but it's remained untouched since. "Well then, Eli," you might be saying, "Why don't you use the drafting notebook for this project?". To that I say... I don't know???
Logically speaking, writing on the notebook would definitely help me get out of the perfectionist mindset that I always struggle with in writing, but a part of me also thinks that having to write it down physically feels too...formal? If that makes sense.
I have to keep reminding myself that the point of this project isn't to create polished pieces of work for a portfolio, but to just get into the act of writing. Using a pen and paper, while an effective method to get myself writing, just doesn't feel right for this project. It's like doing a detailed sketch for a piece of art that's meant to be just a doodle.
So without the drafting notebook, I now have to try and be comfortable with rough, finished works, which is what I feel this latest story is: a very rough finished work.
Like with all my stories, I started writing it with a rough idea with how everything goes, but as deeper I got into it, the more the story itself began to shift a lot. There wasn't meant to be an interior design or shop owner aspect to the story at all; In fact, the two were originally meant to just pass each other on the street with Laurie recognizing something Ysa would be wearing. But things change as soon as they're actually put onto digital paper, and overall, although it's vastly different from how I first imagined it, I'm happy with how it ended up.
Would I say I'm proud of it? Probably not. I'm proud that I have written it but I'm not particularly proud of the actual writing, and say what you will about that, I think I should start getting used to that if I want to be consistent with this personal project.
Maybe one day I'll go back and revisit these works and polish them up into real gems, but for now I'm happy that I've actually managed to finish something, short and sweet as it may be.
That story was meant to be the June story, but because I've delayed it so much it ended up being posted in July, so now I really gotta get back into saddle and get something started for July.