Finally finished that short story last night.

It needs a once over to really make the whole thing gel, but that’s because it took me a little while to understand exactly what story I was writing.

Which sounds backwards, I know. But sometimes, that’s just how it goes. One day, I’ll the plot whole, with me knowing every step before I take it. Other days, I’ll get a conversation or a scene that I can build a story around.

This one was a literal idea, (hey, let’s have a brownie mess with Mina. I always loved Franjean and Rool.)

But it having a one sentence idea, makes the plot a little murky.  I powered through, and now I’ll refine the concept. Remember, it’s not just a story. These shorts have a tendency to introduce characters I need and/or explore an idea I use minimally in another story.

For example, the short I’m releasing on May 1st (The Hunt at the Haunt), shows how Mina goes from vaguely antagonistic towards the local demon hunters to one of them. I needed that story element for the grand finale and didn’t have time for a friendship moment in the story itself.

This short serves a similar purpose for the second series, and I figured it out last night. If I have to abandon the Monsters of Pittsburgh motif, then this story already has its alternate title: The New Normal