By the Drink was published Sunday by Blue Ridge Literary Prose. I was excited to discover the new online literary magazine.

It is my first contemporary story to be published, and my fifth creative publication.

I wrote the original draft of By the Drink in June 2011. It was the first contemporary story I considered to be of any worth. By the Drink was the first story in which I wrote about those who would suffer as a result of the economy.

I have edited the story multiple times.

Editing is a process I have learned to perfect in the last three years.

I call my editing style the turtle approach.

For example, I have worked on Sons of the Edisto—my book—for six and a half years.

By the Drink was an experimental piece as I originally incorporated play script writing. I did not see anything similar to  what I had written until I read F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s This Side of Paradise. By then, I had already stripped the style of writing out and replaced it with dialogue.

I had sent the story to a few journals, and received very encouraging rejections. It became the story I wanted to see published the most. I kept editing and making changes.

The story was, without planning, my first to feature satire. It captured sarcasm; a part of my personality not seen in my historical fiction. The second major editing I undertook last fall and winter was to eliminate the amount of sarcasm. As I improved the story, it evolved.

By the Drink finally made the next round.

I am thankful Blue Ridge Literary Prose’s editors had faith in my story. I hope you will click on the hyperlink above and check out other authors and poets’ wonderful work.

By Rebecca T. Dickinson

• By the Drink, “Blue Ridge Literary Prose”
  

Tagged: Editing, how to edit, literary magazine, Short story, This Side of Paradise, Writing