The plays are the thing

Okay, so this is a paraphrase of an actual conversation I had with an editor at the annual PNWA conference last summer:

Me: Right now, the book is 16 short stories and 2 ten-minute plays.

Him: Ten-minute whats?

Me: Plays. There’s two of them.

Him: Why would you do that?

Me: What?

Him: Include plays? That’s messing with the form.

Me: Because the stories are better as plays. The stuff that happens in them are better in play form than they are in story form.

Him: Don’t include the plays.

Me: What?

Him: I wouldn’t include the plays.

Me: Why not?

Him: Because no one has ever done it before.

Me: Isn’t that a good reason to include the plays?

Him: I thought you wanted to get this published.

Me: I do.

Him: Well, no one is going to want to publish the plays.

Me: Really?

Him: Well, maybe one play. Keep one play, but not two. I wouldn’t do it.

As I format these pages to go to my volunteer editor, and I spend most of my Saturday writing time formatting the damn plays, and I’m starting to think that the sourpuss editor had a point.

In my heart of hearts, though, I think the plays are terrific, and should travel along with the rest of my work.

This is the dilemma of the weekend.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.