I wrote a short story today! It's less than 900 words and not all that great, sure, but it's a real live short story, the first I've written since the end of December. I wrote it for two reasons.
Reason one: I'm 85,000 words into Bloodhound but I've painted myself into a corner. Our heroine Cam is on her way with a friend to rescue her vampire-hunting colleagues from a few hundred vampires who have them besieged. I have no earthly idea how two people will make a difference in this case. Everything I think of smacks of deus ex machina. So while I'm frantic to keep writing, I have no idea what I'm going to write, and I thought I should drop back and work on a short instead. It hasn't helped.
Reason two: I got the edits this week for "Antler and Eye," which will appear in the Leather, Denim & Steel anthology from Pill Hill Press really soon. That was the story I wrote at the end of December, and I was impressed at its quality when I read it over. It's not perfect, but it was a lot better than I remembered. It also made me want to write another short story.
As I've complained before, I'm not all that good at writing short. I'm a novelist. But short stories really are worth writing, if I can dredge up ideas for them.
5 comments:
I'm entering short story month. I hope. I feel like I haven't worked on one in forever.
But you write lots of short stories! In fact, I'm insanely jealous of your output.
Nudity. I can't stress this enough, it will save you time and time again. Practice with me: "My pants, where have they gone?" the character gasped.
Since we're talking vampires, you can go beyond an "earthly idea" - yes?
Natalie--I'm so, so tempted to use that line in my next story.
Anne--Yeah, and I probably will. I just don't want it to seem unrealistic. Well, you know what I mean. :)
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