So far the writing's gone swimmingly, with several of my 'Lost' Canterbury Tales having been written up successfully from shorter, abridged versions. However, with my latest story, The Canon's Yeoman's Second Tale, I've run into a problem.
The gist of the problem is that I needed some backstory to the tale I had in mind, yet the backstory ended up being over three thousand words. At this point I sat back reflectively and realised that what I had actually written was a separate story, a sequel which could stand independently on its own - a win-win situation, in fact.
The last third of the tale (which is about a medieval manuscript in case you're wondering about the picture) will need a bit of tinkering with, but once I've changed the ending and pruned that last third down a bit, I reckon I'll have a saleable piece of fiction.
My only regret is that the version of this 'Lost' Canterbury Tale that I submitted to a publisher (and which got rejected the next day) lost the plot towards the end and therefore deserved its rejection letter. However, I've learned from the experience and will hopefully be better at predicting potential plotting problems in future.
Anyhow, here are the opening few lines of the Tale for you:
Sir John de Bourne, crusading in the land
Where Christ once trod, lay bleeding in the sand
Amidst a heap of corpses, friends and foes,
Each with his God and food for hungry crows.
“I’ll tarry here awhile,” the noble knight
Thought sadly as he waited for the light
Of Heaven to embrace him in her womb.
“This desert plain,” he rued, “shall be my tomb.”
(Excerpt ends)
Below are links to my two Global Short Story Competition winners, my short-listed story for the National newspaper, Abu Dhabi, and my Canterbury Tale published by Coscom Entertainment:
http://coscomentertainment.com/?p=159
http://www.globalshortstories.net/winningstoriesjuly09.pdf
http://www.globalshortstories.net/winningstoriesdec09.pdf
http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness
Happy writing!