I’m currently working on some short stories to submit to anthologies (none of which I expect to be successful with, but it lets the back of my mind focus on the novel I’m outlining as I exercise). A few of them are going fine, but one just hasn’t felt right, and it’s taken me a couple of revisions to realise the blindingly obvious.

It’s a pulpy noir thing, with a hint of supernatural. First person present tense tends to be my inclination for this kind of thing. The lead character is disconnected from her feelings, and any real sense of fear, because reasons. And I was wondering why I wasn’t feeling any tension in certain scenes. Because I’m an idiot.

Of course it needs to be in the third person if the lead is disinclined to feel jeopardy (not that it’d be impossible in first person, it just feels inefficient in a short story). Admittedly, I haven’t been outlining these in as much detail as I maybe could (and maybe should) but I’d have thought by now I’d have learnt something about writing.

Yet every new project feels like my writing is getting worse. Or every new project my awareness of my faults is more pronounced, but I’m making no progress in developing my skills. Either way, it isn’t reassuring.

I’ll try rewriting it in third person and see if it’s any better, because I like the idea behind it. I’m not sure it’ll support more of a story, but it feels like it could be a useful IP.