This morning I put what I have wrote so far for the litnet Once upon a time contest on to the website only to discover I have hit the target of 25 litnet pages and I am yet to finish the story. Noooo! Editor Murakami Kiyoshi to the rescue.

Bless him he came on Skype this morning to offer his great advice,

Kiyoshi: (shake head) Why does it have to be 25 pages? Why couldn’t they do it a nice round number like 30 would be better, or make it so you have a bit of leeway 25 to 30 pages. That way it does not matter if you go two or so lines over on to 26.

Me: Ah that is the challenge to make a nice compact story, even tough it is torture. (laugh)

Kiyoshi: (giggle) It sure is when you are series writer. I know we treat this like a prolog, that way we can make it strong all the way though but still allow for the bit of romance to blossom.

Me: Now that is a good plan. Once I have completed it I’ll send it to you, so you can run your expert eye over it.

Kiyoshi: Daijoubu desu yo!* Hopefully we will be able to remove something without it looking like you have ripped an entire scene out of the story, or made an abrupt ending which leaves the reader feeling there should be more to it than that. I’m sure together we make a nice smooth prolog haha.

Me: Hai, I’m sure we will make what I have done in a great, strong short story.

Kiyoshi: (nodding) Hai. Ganbare!** Keep writing the ending. 

Me: Hai.

*It will be okay! **Keep at it!