The Needle.

I stalled in my short story, The Needle, because it was getting unwieldy. It was clearly going to be at least 10K words, and there was no way an anthology is going to give a newbie like me that many words.

This morning I woke up and cut 2000 words. I think, if I try really hard, I can keep the story to 5K words, or 6K on the outside. Still probably too many words, but good enough to submit.

From this point on in the story, there are three action scenes and the finale. So very straightforward. I figure about 800 words per scene, which would take me to 6500 words. Then I go back and cut stray words wherever I can--say 500 words? I can probably accomplish this in the next two days, then send it off to a couple of beta readers and Lara, my editor.

I'm glad I didn't force through the original storyline, but let my subconscious work on it. 5:30 this morning, I wake up and the words are coming to me. 

I still have a small scene which I really like that maybe isn't strictly necessary, but I'm leaving it in for now. I also do a fair amount of set-up, probably the first 1500 words, which is probably not kosher. But I would probably draw the line at cutting that, because to me the story doesn't make any sense without those details and motivations in place. 

If--as I fully expect--I get rejected, I can go back to the idea of extending the story. Or just put it online for free.