Writings on Parade - Post Game Wrap

I promised a post-game wrap, and instead I post about sandwiches.  Not horrible, but I know it made me quite hungry.

Whatever, I figured I'd talk a little bit about "Drawn and Quartered" a bit, to try and talk myself through the process of what I consider to be a minor success and failure.  Here are the five parts in total:

Drawn and Quartered - Part 1
Drawn and Quartered - Part 2
Drawn and Quartered - Part 3
Drawn and Quartered - Part 4
Drawn and Quartered - Part 5

Before going anywhere, I have to admit that I initially had formulated most of part 5 before even writing the rest of the story.  In my attempt, I decided that part 5 actually worked best as a closing scene rather than an introduction.  I had started writing part 1 as Joseph re-entering the kitchen.  try reading it the other way around with half of part 5 excised and you'll have an idea of what direction I was heading.  Yea, not so good.

In the end, I feel the story really meandered quite a bit and I fell into a trap that most amateur writers fall into: overwriting.  I believe that the story could be served by elimination of a few descriptive paragraphs and instead of attempting textual gymnastics, I could instead focus on storytelling.  Even so, I feel there are positives to be gleaned from the experience, including part 4 of this story, which I consider to be the strongest section.

What it comes down to, for me, is this exercise really stretched me in terms of figuring out pacing, plotting, a little more in the realm of dialog (do all characters have a unique voice?) and taught me that what I need most is discipline.  In that, the story is a success.  In the fact that the story itself seems rather pointless, it is a failure.  It could work as an opening chapter, it could be served to have a little more background applied to the supporting character of St. Stephen (a cypher, maybe?), and I probably could have mentioned Ruth a bit sooner in the story. 

Alas, that's why I write these things in the first place:  to learn.  I'll keep going though, so if anyone's at all interested, watch this space.