Hello and welcome to WIPpet Wednesday, a blog hop wherein writers share an excerpt from their current WIP that somehow relates to the date. To join in, simply click the blue linky up there to the right. It’s been a while since I posted a WIPpet on a Thursday, but it’s still Wednesday somewhere in the world, so I say it counts. In fact, I just checked, and it’s only 6:45pm on Wednesday in NYC, so that’s practically normal blogging time anyway. 😛
I mentioned in last week’s post that I was going to a spec-fic convention that weekend. It was awesome! I still have to type up all my notes and make sense of them, and that might take a while because I’m also currently snowed under with uni assignments (bring on November!). But at some point, I will talk about it in a few Monday Musings posts like I did for the Canberra Writer’s Festival.
One thing that really stood out for me, though, was how many of the authors there had started out with getting short stories published, and had that on their resumes by the time they were seeking rep for a novel. It made me want to get serious about writing short stories again, so I’ve decided to aim for two completed stories (first drafts, at least) during October.
The con had a focus on fairytales this year, and there was one panel titled “Female villains: beyond wicked witches, femmes fatales and evil stepmothers”. One woman on that panel works in child services in her day job and pointed out that statistically, a stepfather is more likely to abuse stepchildren then a stepmother, yet the wicked stepmother became the trope (there are historical reasons for that, particularly with regard to the Grimm Brothers collections of stories but that’s a story for another time). Which got me to thinking about Cinderella might have been different if it had been her father who died and her mother who remarried. So I’m toying around with that idea. At first, I was going to go the (rather obvious, perhaps) sexual abuse route, but I don’t think I am qualified to write that. So I’m toying around with other directions to take it, as well as trying to decide whether it will have a fantasy bent or be more realistic.
In the meantime, here is a four-line paragraph from what I’ve written so far. This is just after the father has died.
Ella took a week off school and her mother stayed home from work, too. They sat on the couch and watched TV and ate biscuits and ice-cream. They looked at old photos and talked a lot about Ella’s dad. They had fish and chips in their old spot by the lake, but they only did that once. It didn’t feel right with just the two of them.
FYI, though I’m sure most of you already figured it out, biscuits = cookies because I’m Australian.
Since I’m sneakily writing this post at work, I had better finish up. See you all soon!
Emily Wrayburn 
Ooh, I like that twist on Cinderella. A very sweet but sad snippet between mother and daughter.
If I could only write short stories and flash fiction the rest of my life, I probably would. They just don’t sell as well from an individual author.
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Short stories? I’ve never had any success whatsoever with them, so I’ve widely focused on my novels. I am writing them again, however, and I am slowly getting them out there, submitting anyway. My poetry has seen more success than the short stories… but neither has paid me much. Neither have novels for that matter; they have, however, given me more cash and considerably more contentment. But, I’d write regardless.
Ella and her mother… sometimes this is needed between a parent and a child, and I’ve done the same with my own children, collectively (all three are now grown) and individually.
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This is a great short snippet. And sad. Good luck with the short story.
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Sounds like you had a great time at the convention. That is an interesting fact that the child services worker mentioned. Great idea about the Cinderella story with a twist 🙂
Love this snippet, Emily. It’s simple yet impactful.
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This is a great story idea – I like everything you write! 🙂 Excellent inspiration from the convention there. And biscuits is right! 😉
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