The Tutorial (Five Sentence Fiction, October 2012)

The one word prompt from Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction this week was:  Flawed

 

“Your manuscript shows promise,” he said, his steepled fingers tapping thoughtfully against his pursed lips, “but despite your best efforts, I still have to say that I find your writing deeply flawed, my dear.”

She sighed, reflecting that on this, the last of the six, inordinately expensive tutorials, there was still another criticism of her work.

If it wasn’t issues surrounding ‘point of view’, it had been ‘show not tell’, and she’d lost count of  the hours she’d spent correcting or eliminating three-point elipses and amending dialogue tags or speech contractions.

“You see,” he continued, warming to his theme, “to be brutal, I’m not sure you’ve got the imagination to write a crime thriller, my dear;   you really are a tad, shall we say … insular … and they do say you should only ‘write what you know’.”

“Oh don’t’ worry about that,” she said, smiling engagingly at him, and fingering the blade deep in her pocket, “I’ve got that angle covered.”