Fresh eyes are best

One of the problems I think I'm having with my short story editing is that I'm too close to the story.

It's a litany of faith among writers to let a book 'lie' for a while after writing it before attempting edits.  Much like my pot roast, I have a hard time waiting for the juice to settle.  I usually dive right in and start cutting, gobbling bits down...

Excuse me.  Just got hungry.

Ah, that's better.  My point is not how delicious pot roast is.  It's that I agree we need to let things lie a bit before we work on them.  And I need to do that for my short stories as well as my novels.

Now, if a story is basically solid, I may just fix typos and fire it off to go and gather rejection letters.  But if I need to tinker with structure, then the same novel-based rules should apply.

If I let a story sit, when I go back to it, I get to read it as if it was the first time. Ideally, as if it was written by a stranger.  Then I can, coldly and impartially, pick it apart and fix the places that need fixing.  So I'm going to be doing that for my short stories as well.  Now, I do have a deadline to submit to an anthology I have my eye on, but I'm not going to rush my submission.  For this shot, I'm going to let this story rest a bit and then decide if I need gravy or applesauce.

As a side note to myself, don't write site blogs while the slow cooking is workign.