Matchmaker

My writing sample should be around 40 pages.

Those forty pages should include two stories.

Complete stories are better than excerpts because stories show the author can handle structure, and excerpts (by definition, seeing as you *should* need the rest of the novel to understand them) don't.

So, I wrote a story that felt right.

The structure and language were fairly good, but the characterization and plotting (since those two are enmeshed, I suppose) weren't.

I changed the characterization.
Tried, and failed to change the plot.
Thought about the theme.
Changed the plot.

Now I'm in a pretty good place with that story. It's dark but not overly graphic.

The other one is based on an excerpt. Though the characters/backstory/setting are different, the plot of this chapter has stayed the same since it was a manuscript section.

I rethought the characters and backstory, and changed bits of the plot.
The language is doing all right.
But it's not really coming together. And now that I've basically memorized it, I'm having trouble editing.

I'm not in a BAD place with the story, but not (yet?) in a good one. It's graphic but not quite as dark as Story 1.

The problem I'm having is with these stories as a pair. When trying to show my range, shouldn't I try to show two different tones? I'm worried that both of these stories are too dark, and that the groups of characters are too similar. The plots aren't even all that different.

That happens to me a lot when I work on two pieces at once--they feed off one another, which is a good thing, but they also echo one another, which isn't.

Anyway, the two pieces together are about ten pages too long. That's especially a problem for places with a *THIRTY* page limit, where I absolutely can't turn in fifty pages of material.

So I started thinking about ANOTHER excerpt that I think is fairly stand alone. It's got a MUCH lighter, almost screwball tone. The characters are much different from the ones I present in Story 1 (which is definitely going in the sample). So, it would make a better match/juxtapose better with Story 1 than Story 2 does, right?

Only I think that Story 2 is more complete than this excerpt, and is more character-centric. Since Story 1 is relatively heavy on plot, Story 2 being heavy on character is important to me.

Another thing to consider, however, is that what I'm seeing as "character heavy" is in actuality angsty-undergrad writing, which has been a struggle for me to leave behind.

As it is now, I think I'll be submitting Story 1 and the Excerpt. Together, they'll be 30-40 pages. I think their plot and tone contrasts make them a better pair. I think they're more mature stories than Story 2 is. For the places which allow longer samples, I may include Story 2, but probably not.

Still, it makes me sad to see Story 2 left behind, after so much work on it. And worried, because though I *think* replacing it with Excerpt is clear-sightedness, it may be a loss of nerve.

Bah. We'll see how my Beta(s) feel. It's so hard for me to see my own work clearly! Does that ever get easier?