Random thought: Give me ambiguity, or give me something else.
Ready on not, here’s the midterm edition of this week’s blog. My thanks go out to reader Susan C. Shelldrive for sending me the prompt that inspired this tale. Let’s get to it, shell we?
They Gave Their Kids Everything—Except Attention
They were spoiled brothers who would’ve been envied by all the other neighborhood kids— if they weren’t douchebags.
Their influential parents showered them with extravagant gifts like motorized skateboards and mini-Teslas that they raced through the streets, running over neighborhood kids. Parents of the victims seethed, but felt helpless.
And then, unexpectedly, karma arrived. The Tesla autopilot failed, and both brothers hit trees; embarrassing naked baby photos of the twins flooded Instagram, permanently scarring them emotionally.
One neighborhood parent did more than seethe. She was the local payback queen, and she was extremely busy settling the score for the victimized kids.
The slashing and burning continues, as Questionable Characters gets the Ozempic treatment—Literary Edition. As of this writing, I have shaved seventy-six (that’s right—76!) pages from my last draft. It’s a good start, but it’s not nearly enough. I have to tell you, I’m actually enjoying the process, finding it both challenging and rewarding. I’ve only deleted a few things so far that I really hated to lose, but when I ask myself if anyone will ever miss them, the answer is, only one person, and he’ll just have to get over it. And if he can’t, then he knows where the “Deleted Material” folder is kept.
The other thing I’ve discovered is that I feel like the deeper I go into this draft, the better I get at finding things to cut. Because the knife has gotten sharper over time, I now know that when I reach the end, I’ll go back to page one and start over. There will be more blood.
That’s the way it has to be.
Stay tuned.
Scotty out
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