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.