Sturgeon's Law

I'm working on a poem whose jumping-off point came from a speculative fiction story I wrote shortly after I graduated college. As writing on the poem proceeded, I went back to the (definitely unpublished) story to see if I could pull any other ideas from it. Usually when I read old writing of mine, I cringe, but I was shocked to find that the writing in this story, which is now at least six years old (and I probably started it even earlier than that) is quite competent. The logical contortions the plot goes through to deal with its holes are ridiculous, but the writing itself is fundamentally readable and even sharp sometimes. The story itself isn't salvageable as such, but it's nice to know that I was already getting somewhere years ago, especially now that I feel like I may be trying some more prose of some sort (maybe flash fiction, maybe humor, I dunno) soon.

Labels: not poetry, poetry