Another 'New Leaf' with just a touch of INSECURITY

I had really hoped to give you a true short story today as part of my ‘New Leaf’ posts, but alas, poor me, time is once more my enemy. But, I do have another 100 Word Story. I wrote it to this month’s photo prompt. You can find more information at their site. 100 Word Story 

 

Supermarket Chalk Lines

Supermarket chalk lines. The ghost of lunch, when you couldn’t choke down the last bite, an apple core left for the birds, a carton of milk spilled by an exuberant child.

My mind wanders to those starving children in some distant nation long forgotten by all but my mother. “Children are starving around the world, clean your plate,” she said, when I wouldn’t eat.

I learned. I’m careful. I produce no supermarket chalk lines. No waste, no loss, consume it all. Remember the children. Two of them sit across from me now in the weight loss clinic.

There you go. 100 words, no more, no less.

I haven’t submitted this one yet and I’m not sure I will. I’ll share it, and you guys can tell me what you think.

I’m neck deep in edits and rewrites. I’ve let my work sit for a long time and it’s tedious going through critiques and merging everything together. Who am I kidding, I find editing my own work tedious no matter what the timing.

I’ve gone over this enough times that I’m starting to hate my characters, think the plot is weak and full of holes, and wonder why I ever thought I could write in the first place. I have no idea what genre I’m writing and wondering if I’m trying to cover too much time (a span of about a decade), which ages my characters to a place where they cross from YA to whatever it would be a decade later.

I keep asking myself; is it supposed to be this hard? Do all good writers go through dozens of rewrites before they feel that they’ve gotten it right? Am I nuts? For whatever reason, I can’t seem to give it up, so I just keep plugging along.

I do want to add that since I’ve been working on these 100 Word Stories (Flash Fiction), I’ve learning to cut mercilessly at my longer work. Now of course, I worry; am I making it too lean? Once I  finished with this go round (hopefully before 3/18) I'm looking for a few good folks who want to read/critique the whole mess. Leave me a comment and let me know if your interested.

Anybody else experience these same type of questions or is it just me?

Before I close, I want to direct anybody who hasn’t already been by Tossing It Out to stop on over and take a listen. Wow! Mr. Bird just took BATTLE OF THE BANDS and IWSG to a whole new level. Congratulations Arlee!

BTW, my BATTLE OF THE BANDS is stilling running (until March 7th). If you haven't already, please click back one post and cast a vote.