An Invaluable Experience

In my last post, I was deploring how little writing I've been doing. I also talked about being in a "period of reflection" and research at this time... a little break before launching out to the second stage of The Crown of Life. Well, I was wrong that I wasn't going to write. If anything, it has been a long while since I did so much writing! There are many new and invaluable experiences to be discovered in being a writer, and I've recently discovered one. 

I have written my first short story! 
And it is entitled, A Love That Never Fails

It has been a wonderful, new experience. And it has taught me so much more about writing. Having written it in a short-time period (a week), and giving myself a word count of 3000 words for the sake of keeping it a short story was one of the biggest challenges in the process (the latter especially). Yet, I have learnt so much about picking out the threads, really forming a story and... finishing it. I've never written an ending to any story/novel before until last week; and it was a thrilling sensation typing out the last word!

To make it a short-story there was this word count to deal with. I learnt for the first time how to make out what is really necessary to the story as a whole, and what is useless "rambling" and repetitiveness in the use of words. This I have not really focused on in my historical novel, due to its depth and largeness. And I haven't reached the ending of course and so I've not bothered about it. Yet regarding the short story, I confess that it felt like pure torture when I had to chop up favourite (though not imperative) scenes and paragraphs for the sake of the whole piece. I recently read something relevant to this from one writer in a textbook called, The Creative Writing Coursebook (that's a great book by the way for newbie and experienced writers alike!). The writer, Ashley Stokes, said, "Even fine work may need to be sacrificed for the overall whole." Hard as it was while writing the story, this is true.

However, now that I've finished the short story, I have this new idea which I am praying about. I'm considering rewriting A Love That Never Fails as a short sized novel, whilst still working on my main book, The Crown of Life. It is still not decided yet... but it is a thought and we'll have to see where it goes from there! So, if you see me mentioning A Love That Never Fails, or making Beautiful People and Story Snippets for it, it should not take you by surprise. With all that, don't fear... I am not abandoning The Crown of Life. It will hopefully will be a side thing that I can work on when I'm low on inspiration or just need a little break. Does that make sense?

Maybe you're wondering though what is my short story about from the first place? Well, I have yet to write a good synopsis and I don't want to give too much away, but briefly, it is about a young girl in London during the London Blitz of World War 2 and deals with such things as the evacuation of children during the bombings in England, love in the midst of sorrow, an overburdened family and the theme of 2 Corinthians 13 that "Love Never Fails".

And here are some pictures of the main characters. Enjoy!

Jane Wilson
(Jane in left picture at 14, Jane in right picture at 19)

Grandmamma Wilson

George Wilson (Jane's father)

William and Elizabeth Miller

Elizabeth Miller

Amelia Miller

Margret Miller

Dick Miller

Matilda Dew
(lady on far right)

Mrs. Helen Burns

There is another main character, but I can't find a picture.
his name is Albert Hunter

You've been like a ray of sunshine in our house since you came. I just don't understand, Jane." - A Love That Never Fails

all images are via Pinterest