Getting a Little Work Done

My goal for the week is to edit and rewrite some of the stories that I plan to publish, eventually.  Yesterday I tackled Stone Temple Space Raiders.  This is a story that I read at Writer's Night a few months back and, unlike many of my Grandpa Anarchy stories, it did not go over very well.  The problems were at least twofold -- one, the story was too long, and two, there was absolutely no surprise at the end.

What I did yesterday was to shorten it up quite a bit and give it a new ending, working from the idea that if the original ending was obvious to the reader it might become obvious to the characters as well.  I'm not sure if the new ending works much better, but with the story shortened at least the overall effect is improved.  I'll have to go back to it again and see if the new ending really works, or if I can come up with something else -- it was hard to imagine an ending that was completely different from my original one that worked as a surprise.

Today I may tackle Soldier's Men, a story built around a fun premise but I can't remember if it actually worked as such.  My Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal is another I'd like to look at -- as well as Contract, Dig My Grave, Fryer Out of Time, Oceans of the Void, Solar Sister and the Disco Trolls of Doom -- as well as the really big stories, some of which I know need  work: World of Hero, Amethyst Road, What You Should Know, Supper Soldier.  A lot of the stories I wrote during NaNoWriMo are suspect, since I was finishing them off and going straight to a new story the next day.  But the "big"stories are ones that I want to make work -- they involve larger parts of Grandpa Anarchy's back story, history, and important companions.  They're stories that need to be in any compilation.