Hi all,

I have this story idea that I’ve had for years, spinning in my brain like a particularly jagged rock in a tumbler. I’m hoping it smooths out, but know that once polished something undefinable about it might also be lost.

I imagine that most writers have those stories, the ones that haunt them. But the stories that exist because of their rough edges are ones I have a particular affinity for. I find these different than long gestating stories. I’ve mentioned in a few places that I have percolation stories. Ones that need time and a spark to truly work. My story Accidental Girls was like that. I had an inciting image for it, and then sat on that image for years until I was ready to write it.

Then there are the stories that we finish writing but do nothing further with, the unkilned pottery of writing. I have one story that I finished but have never sent out—it’s a story I am proud of the writing of, believe I accomplished what I wanted to do with it, but shortly after I finished writing it, the world ended up doing something so similar to the horrific central image of the story that it didn’t feel right to send out. I feel like these stories, the ones we put away are as important to our writing as the ones we send out or publish.

But rock tumbler stories are different than percolation stories or unkilned stories, they’re more fully formed but impossibly jagged. As a perfectionist, I find it hard to give in to those rough edges, those places of imperfection. Still, I’ve collected enough lakeshore rocks and sent them through a tumbler to know that polishing doesn’t necessarily reveal what you want it to. No shine from grinding down can equal the light through water hitting those edges in just the right way. So, maybe I’ll just write the story, leave it away from the fine-tuning.

Do you have stories like this? How have you found ways to let them shine how they need to not how you want them to?

--Chloe

P.S. Until May 1st, I'm running a giveaway. If you're among the people who have subscribed up until that point (or the first 100 subscribers--another lofty goal), then you'll be entered to win some signed copies of my books and weird merch I've made for them over the years. Do a friend a solid and tell them to sign up winks garishly