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It used to be that I would write 15-20 short stories a year. The last few years, though, that has dropped down to ten if I'm lucky. My yearly word count hasn't changed all that much, so plainly the 'short story' words are going into novels or nonfiction. I think it's the nonfiction that cut into them. I don't think that's going to change, either. Maybe I just need to try evening out the two a bit more.
Writing short stories is odd when you are used to novels. I tend to let them go wild and then tame them back down to size. And, unless there's a really good reason for it, a short story will generally wait at least a year in the edit queue before I go over it again. There is no hurry in most cases.
My problem lately has just been in getting things off to publishers. One story finally went out tonight. I'm happy with it, too. We'll see how well it does.
Part of my short story writing energy has been going into the DAZ newsletter, where I get to write some fun little pieces of about 250 words a week. If the products for that week all happen to be related, I can make a story out of them, and that's fun. It's also a challenge, and I like that part. And it pays well, which also doesn't hurt at all.
This month's short story challenge at FM is going about the way I expected it would for me. I did very well the first few days, and then life stepped in again and I have only just now finished my fifth story. I would have liked to have done more, but that's all right. I'll get at least one more in, I think.
I did something odd with this year's stories. They're all related. I need to write one now that will explain and continue the story I just finished. (So, can I call it really finished? Well, for now, yeah.) I think I'm going to start it tonight.
I've lately come to realize how nice it is to be free to write pretty much anything I want. I made a decision never to put anything up on line that wasn't already written so that I didn't 'have' to work on something specific when I didn't have the link to the imagination that it needed. That way leads to the land of 'oh, just throw this in' and some pretty odd (and boring writing), at least for me. And for others, from what I've occassionally seen.
It's always good to know how your mind works, especially for something like this, and work in the ways that are best for you. Yeah, I can do a whole 250 words a week for some product 'story' and make it work, but I'm glad I don't have any other 'must do this now!' work. There are some weeks when it just would not be a good thing.
Writing short stories is odd when you are used to novels. I tend to let them go wild and then tame them back down to size. And, unless there's a really good reason for it, a short story will generally wait at least a year in the edit queue before I go over it again. There is no hurry in most cases.
My problem lately has just been in getting things off to publishers. One story finally went out tonight. I'm happy with it, too. We'll see how well it does.
Part of my short story writing energy has been going into the DAZ newsletter, where I get to write some fun little pieces of about 250 words a week. If the products for that week all happen to be related, I can make a story out of them, and that's fun. It's also a challenge, and I like that part. And it pays well, which also doesn't hurt at all.
This month's short story challenge at FM is going about the way I expected it would for me. I did very well the first few days, and then life stepped in again and I have only just now finished my fifth story. I would have liked to have done more, but that's all right. I'll get at least one more in, I think.
I did something odd with this year's stories. They're all related. I need to write one now that will explain and continue the story I just finished. (So, can I call it really finished? Well, for now, yeah.) I think I'm going to start it tonight.
I've lately come to realize how nice it is to be free to write pretty much anything I want. I made a decision never to put anything up on line that wasn't already written so that I didn't 'have' to work on something specific when I didn't have the link to the imagination that it needed. That way leads to the land of 'oh, just throw this in' and some pretty odd (and boring writing), at least for me. And for others, from what I've occassionally seen.
It's always good to know how your mind works, especially for something like this, and work in the ways that are best for you. Yeah, I can do a whole 250 words a week for some product 'story' and make it work, but I'm glad I don't have any other 'must do this now!' work. There are some weeks when it just would not be a good thing.
busy