Pure Fiction

So I decided to enter this fiction contest. Because I've somehow deluded myself into thinking that I can write.

And I must qualify this by saying that I've never written fiction before. I write a lot in my job but this is new to me. Also, I was working on a deadline of about 30 days and I hadn't prepared a thing to start. Which is to say now that I know of this contest, I believe I may start writing next year's entry now.

The rules require 3,000-4,500 words which is actually kind of long. When you get to 1,800 words and your completely stuck with where to go next in your story.

What I found is that I had a pretty good script on my hands. It was all dialogue. Hardly any descriptions or narrative.

I managed to flesh (flush?) it out a bit and when the story ended I was at about 3,200 words which I was just happy a) to have reached the end, and b) that it fell within the guidelines.

I gave the story to a friend to read. She has previously worked in publishing and although she worked the business and not the editorial end, I thought she might have some comments for me.
I totally forgot that her husband is a published writer. No really. I did. He read it and had some suggestions for me. Which were more than welcome.

"You're working a modified short story format here," he said, "but you're dealing with pretty pedestrian readers [he said that! "pedestrian readers!" Don't you love it??] so I would stick with a straight short story format if I were you."

"Excellent," I said. "What's a short story format?"

I told you I've not done this before.

He said my story could use a conflict. Ahh.

Also, even if it is chick lit, don't name the girl Sam or Alex or anything gender androgynous. Everyone names their girl Sam or Alex.

He also helped me come up with a title. And it was a really good one, too.

I re-worked my story last night and sent it back to my friend (Phoebe! With the hair cut! That I copied!) and asked if her wonderfully generous and helpful husband would mind looking at my re-write and also, did he think, at the end, when the characters are toasting their success, should I make one more reference back to the title or would that be too obvious? (Pedestrian readers, you know.) God, this shit is hard.

I'm sure it's torture for him to read this pap, considering what he writes, but I promised to give him a cut of the winnings if I should be so lucky. First prize is $1,000 AND the mag publishes your story.

I'll let you know how it goes.