Thoughts On Short Stories

Hello.

It's a rainy late March morning and I'm sitting at my desk trying to collate all the bits and pieces I've written over the last few months, hoping they come together like a jigsaw to make a whole collection that I can send to my prospective PhD supervisor. My issue is that some of these short stories have been carefully edited and even submitted to various zines and anthologies, and some of them are very very first draft, barely more than bullet points.

I can edit them, of course. And I have time to do it. My issue is sort of the opposite of perfectionism, and the anxiety that comes with it. Oftentimes when I've been on tight deadlines my work becomes sloppy, I become blind to fundamental writing components like spelling, grammar and punctuation and I lose consistency through the multiple read throughs. This has cause problem in the day jobs I've had before, and caused countless missed opportunities with potential publishing options.

The good news is that I have a writing group I can ask for help from, and tools to help me that are so much more thorough and intuitive than they were even in 2020 when I last wrote a substantial piece of work. I also need to make sure that the supervisor knows I'm still drafting. It's only been six months, and I've been working a full time job as well as training for a marathon, socialising, going to see family and friends around the country, and so on.

Looking at this through a positive lens, I've got a theme that's related to what I'll be doing in my PhD project and I've got time to prioritise the anthology and PhD application, over the next couple months at least, in a way I haven't been able to for a couple of years, as well as the support of my partner and friends. Now I just need to get on with it.