Short Story: Amphibious

So, yesterday marked the beginning of the voting period for Figment Fiction's Cinder short story contest. My entry "Amphibious" is up, so if you like my blog, head over and read it.

I have two reasons for my shameless self promotion:

1. Maybe you'll heart it, because, well, I want to win.

2. I'm putting my money where my mouth is so to speak.

Many of you readers have not read any of my work, so you may wonder, how I can be any authority on anything. Well, this does prove I write, and you can sort of gague my skill. And I know that if I were you I'd be interested in seeing what I write.

And as a bonus, I get to talk a little about my process for this story.

"Amphibious" is a short, horror/sci-fi story retelling the "Frog Prince." It's actually an idea I've had floating in my head for a few years now, orginally as a short film. Well, I never made it as a short film, and my film team never seemed to be interested in it. So when I saw the Cinder genre mash-up contest, I figured, what the hell.

Interestingly, I always imagined the main character (May) being a professor. But when I saw the challege was more for the young adult crowd, I tried to see if there was anyway to make May younger. She knew her boyfriend/fiance wasn't talking to her (via a ring), so her engagement ring became a class ring. I knew I wanted to mention the glowfish, and originally May was telling a student those facts, but it became May learning about those facts. I was really surprised at how easily all my points could be swaped for a younger protagonist (which actually makes the story more gruesome).

I started writing this maybe a week and a half ago. It went though 4 to 5 revisions. The first revision involved any major plot changes (such as the ending). The second revision was to make sure I didn't skip any details and I foreshadowed anything of importance. Revisions three through five were mostly line edits. I wanted to make sure everything was clear, and that I used the best words I could think of. Hmmm, this is probably a map for what I'll need to do with my novel...

Honestly, I wish I had more time for revision. While I like the story, I still think it could use some more work. But, feel free to read it, critique, tell me if you love it or hate it, ease your curisoity, etc. And enjoy!