How Long Should You Hold Your Babies?

I sit down at my computer and say to my husband just now "I've just finished the dishes and I got inspired. I've come to write my blog."
He glances over from where he's sitting at his computer. "About the dishes?"
"No! About writing!"
He nods, and smiles benignly at his screen. "Sweet."

I love my husband : )

Anyway, that is NOT what this post is about. This post is about Something Else.

I've recently rediscovered a passion for short story writing. I used to write oodles of them, all terribly depressing, which is the main reason I gave them up - that and because I couldn't see much point. However, having wrestled with an unwieldy full-length manuscript for a few years now I've found there's something incredibly satisfying about writing something good that you can finish in an afternoon and resolves neatly within a few pages. Not only that there's a plethora of short story competitions out there on the internet, with basically any word count or theme you could imagine. How cool is that?

And that is STILL not what this post is about...I'm getting to it, okay?

The thing is, I wrote a short piece for a competition - it was due in today and I was only given a few day's notice, but it flowed really well, and when I finished it I was so proud of myself and proud of it. I emailed it off to a writer friend (thank you eternally Karen) who was so encouraging, and pulled me up on a few bits that weren't working, and having completed those changes I thought That's It. This Is Good.

Baby #1.

Finished that Baby on Saturday morning, and because I could, I started throwing some ideas round for another short story competition. That one felt really inspired, and I sat down and pecked out a short story in half an hour that I LOVED. Still love it...two days later.

Baby #2.

Today is Tuesday, the day I needed to pack up Baby #1 and send it lovingly off to the good judges of this competition. By now though I'm having serious second thoughts. It's a downer. I haven't given the reader any wider context. I should have explained that better. I should have filled in more detail about the other bit. The voice is dense and over-edited.

I still sent it, and I'm glad I did, because by next Thursday the story will probably be fresh and amazing once again. That's the nature of emotions, folks.

So tonight I'm doing the dishes and thinking about my babies, and wondering what changes I would have made to Baby #1 if I'd had the luxury of a few months in the bottom drawer, and whether I'd really have made the changes I'm thinking of tonight, or whether it'd stand up okay on its own after a few months mellowing and brewing in the dark of my forgettory.

And then BAM! I'm thinking about Baby #2 - my work of genius, my inspired masterpiece. The one that's not due until Thursday but I was so confident I sent it anyway...

If I'd added just one extra line just before the last one I'd have NAILED it.
But I didn't. Didn't hold that little one for long at all. And I know that it's strong, and that it'll swim, that it'll find its audience and give people a good laugh...but I could have nailed it.

Am I disappointed? Yeah...a bit. But the good thing about not holding your babies for too long is that you learn to love without such a desperate attachment. Probably makes rejection easier. Stephen King in On Writing (at least I think it was him...could have been Anne Rice in Conversations with Anne Rice...?) talks about writing The End on a novel, making a cup of coffee and then writing Chapter One on a fresh page of a new book. Mr King (or Ms Rice...) knew better than to send it out immediately - a lesson I hopefully have now learned, but the important lesson I gleaned from that quote on Saturday is this:

Immediately after giving birth is not the time to analyse your baby, because whatever you think now you will change your mind. Instead, start planning the next one.

How long should you hold your babies? Until someone asks for them...a deadline. Or, until the next one is pushing them out of the bottom-drawer cradle.

Now that sounds like a segue into a new post: Draft Two...The Toddler Years...hmmmmmmm
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