Whew!  I finally got a story I’ve been working on for the last month-and-a-half out the door.  For some reason, this story was particularly challenging to write.  I’m not sure why.  It was a “darkish” fantasy story, which is something I don’t normally write, but I don’t think that’s the reason.  I wrote it for a specific market—a themed anthology—but I’ve written for specific markets before, so I don’t think that’s it either. 

I think I simply didn’t have a good feel for where it was going or knew enough about the main character when I started.  I found myself meandering around as I searched for my way, which is not something I usually like to do when I write.  I find it a time-consuming way to construct a story (although I know several writers who can only write in this fashion).  I eventually found my way; the missing piece of the puzzle—a clearly-realized motivation for the main character—came in the next to last edit of the story.  From there it was all easy sailing…

I’m proud of the story, but happy it’s finished and finally out the door.  Hopefully the anthology I sent it to will also like it enough to buy it.  Now I can move on to other things, like the back log of stories in need of editing (at least two of them) and that in-progress time travel albatro…I mean story.