Okay, this is weird

I'm doing something I've never done before.

I'm rewriting a story to make it longer. Quite a bit longer. It originally weighed in at 1,200 words. I need it to be around 5,000 to 6,000 words.

It's for an editor who loved the original story, but has a requirement that submissions be at least 5,000 words. He wants me to add the additional wordage.

This is proving difficult. You can't just add scenes--they have to make sense, they have to help the story, and they must not diminish the impact of the ending. I think it's easier to trim something that's too long and to pump up something that's too short. Insert Freudian joke here.

I'm not complaining, mind you. It's so rare to get feedback from an editor that I'm more than happy to give it a shot, just in the hope of making him happy. Most editors these days don't read past the byline--if it's a name they don't recognize it gets trashed, if it's one they do, they send it on to get published. Which is why I just gave up a while back. Of course, this guy actually reads submissions, so I want to give him something to keep him busy. He's a rare bird and I want to hit him up before he becomes more like his peers.

In the mean time I'm listening to "Shallow Life" by one of my favorite bands, Lacuna Coil. Nice little soundtrack to assist me with my thinking. If you aren't familiar with these guys you need to check them out. Their music is sometimes haunting, sometimes hard-driving, sometimes a little silly, but always good at assisting one's imagination when one is trying one's best to create genius. Or, if not genius, at least something people will want to read.