Work in Progress: “The Dancing Teacher”

Progress report:

Last time looked at: 4/9/17

Last actual wordage added: 4/9/17

Pages added, 4/9/17: 3, more or less

Current page count: 13 (see below)

Current word count: 3,405

Estimated final page count: 20-30?

Deadline: June 1, 2017 (anthology)

Comments: Yes, it got shorter.

A few days ago, shortly after my last progress report, I looked back over what I’d written, and considered where the story was going, and said, “That sucks.” I could have finished the story, and it might have been publishable, but I wouldn’t be happy with it, and as the author, my opinion counts.

So I threw out eleven of the eighteen pages I’d written at that point. (I said in a tweet I threw out twelve, but I realized almost immediately that I’d gone a page further than necessary, so I put one back.) I decided I was going to find a plot that didn’t require the protagonist to do something totally boneheaded, and had the antagonist and his family react in a way that vaguely resembled actual human behavior. (Many writers don’t bother with this, and many readers don’t seem to mind, but I usually prefer characters who bear some similarity to reasonably intelligent people.)

I have now come up with that new plot. I think. We’ll see whether it works once I write it all down. And I’ve added more to the story, including some bits salvaged from the discarded material, but mostly new.

The protagonist still does something reckless, but it’s not completely stupid.

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