Thoughts about short stories

I think I'm going to write 50,000 words of short stories for NaNo this year, probably most of them Lizzy and Jo stories. At least I'm going to try. To that end, I'm thinking hard about the structure of the short story and what it should accomplish. I'm terrible at writing short and half my stories turn out flaccid, weak, meaningless, unsatisfying, and disjointed.

So here are some thoughts I've just jotted down. Maybe they'll help someone else. I have no idea if my thoughts are on target for other writers, but I think it's going to help me. (I go on to talk about my two main characters' specific motivations, but I left that part out since no one but me cares.) Oh, MC = main character.

Short story arcs start with a quick view of the MC’s situation, a change in that situation out of the MC’s control (usually), the results of that change going in unexpected directions, the MC’s decision to fix what’s broken or encourage what’s started to change (this can be subtle, a realization), the results of the MC’s efforts in that direction, and the final view of the MC’s changed/restored state.

Events can be reasonably random, but the MC’s decisions HAVE to effect changes and lead naturally to the final outcome.

The less time between the opening and the change (inciting incident), the tighter the story feels, as long as the opening adequately sets the stage. The reader must understand why the change is important. (Some events are self-explanatory, like the MC losing her job, but it’s still stronger if we know whether the MC liked her job, how much she depends on the paycheck or the regular hours, whether there’s someone in her workplace important to her that she may never see again, etc. You can sneak these details in after the inciting incident, as long as it’s done very soon after.)

In the best stories, something internal changes for the MC along with something external. Both are important. One without the other makes a weak story although technically correct. Romances are satisfying because they provide both internal changes (MC falls in love) and external changes (MC accepts another character into her life).

In the case of recurring characters in linked short stories, the small internal changes in each story should mirror the major character arc from first story to last. In this way linked short stories mimic the novel, where external events continually force MC to change and evaluate herself until the climax causes a big final change; but linked short stories offer the changes in a smaller setting and evaluate different facets of the MC’s situation/outlook without muddying the character’s motivations (since only one facet is explored per story).

Welcome to December

I put the tree up last Sunday. I was cleaning that room anyway and thought, "What the hell, it's time." I had considered not putting up a tree at all this year, but I suspect that would have made me even sadder. I did do some crying while I decorated, but was fortunately distracted by Jekyll investigating everything. He didn't try to treat the tree or the decorations as cat toys, just batted at them a few times and sniffed them, so I put the glass ornaments on. So far none of them are broken.

Here's a picture of Jekyll and the tree. I wasn't done decorating it at this point; it's even more loaded with shinies now.

Yesterday I crossed the finished line of NaNo with just over 50,000 words! I finished Wharf Rat entirely and wrote 8,000 words on Adventures in Zoology, getting me very close to the end. I'm going to try to finish Adventures in Zoology by the end of December, which will mean I wrote two books entirely and finished writing three this year.

Next year? My next project will be YA, as high concept as I can make it. I've got to start selling books, not just because it's just ridiculous to me that I haven't broken through yet despite all the effort I put into writing and improving, but also because--to be blunt--I'd like to keep my house. I don't make a lot of money in my day job and I never expected I'd need to pay the mortgage alone. So in 2013 I've got to be commercial and practical. Suggestions for high-concept, whizbang, this-has-never-been-done-before-yet-somehow-it's-very-similar-to-things-that-sell-well YA plots welcome.

The End that isn't

I finished the draft of Wharf Rat this evening, finally! It needs some work, mostly because the denouement dragged out way too long. Next week I'll reread the whole thing in one or two sittings so I can get a feel for where the pacing sags. It's only about 72,500 words in all, which is short for a fantasy; I'll probably need to add some scenes and maybe another subplot too.

But for now, I can't stop writing. I still have almost 8,000 words left in order to complete NaNoWriMo. I've opened up the old, neglected Adventures in Zoology to continue writing it. It would be nice if I could finally finish it--I've been meaning to work on it all year, and I even have the rest of it outlined, I just haven't gotten around to it.

Now's my chance!

1,000 words an hour

Last night was our local NaNoWriMo group's big write-in. We gathered in a big open room in an office building one of our members had arranged for us to borrow; it had lots of tables and power strips and a place to put our food. We all brought food, everything from bags of chips to a honey-baked ham.

I'd signed up to make pumpkin bread, but it was a recipe I hadn't tried before and...it wasn't a success. Obviously. The bottom and sides were overcooked and when I tried to tip the loaf out of the pan, the still-liquid insides puked out. So I stopped at the store on the way and bought a cheese log and Wheat Thins.

We gathered at 5pm and had the building until midnight. Our municipal liaison had a posterboard where we all wrote our names and our word goals for the night, and she had glittery star stickers to put next to our names every time we wrote 500 words. By the end of the night, all the stars were used--and we only had 15 or 16 people there.

I wrote just over 6,000 words, which got me caught up from where I'd been lagging behind on my wordcount. I should reach 30,000 words total today. I also had a good time talking with the other writers, and of course eating like a pig.

It was almost 1 a.m. when I got home. I slept late--until 11 a.m., which is unheard-of for me, but I was short on sleep to start with. Then when I got up, I realized I have galleys to proof for my Etopia book Blood and Ashes, which will be released soon in print. And of course I have to write my daily words.

So I'm going to get right on that, even though I am lacking sausage balls and tortillas with awesome seven-layer dip and leftover Halloween candy (three or four different people brought their leftover Halloween candy). At least I have half a cheese log.

Wow, am I boring

You know what I've done all day? Listened to Pandora Radio and failed to write.

Actually, I did have galleys of The Taste of Magic to proof and return (for the upcoming print edition), which I did. It took me most of the day. And I did go into Knoxville for a local NaNoWriMo write-in, except that the Panera where we were meeting was absolutely packed and I couldn't find our group, so I left again. Then I took a walk since it was almost 75 degrees out. Oh, and I went grocery shopping.

See? Boring.

On the other hand, I've opened up my NaNo file at last and I'm planning to write my way to a scene where our hero is mistaken, due to a complex series of actions he has no control over, for a princess. By the princess's fiance. So I may be boring on the outside, but my brain is busy coming up with cool stuff.

First world problems

Mostly, I find writing with an outline helpful. It keeps me from having to stop writing and figure out what comes next and why, and how it should fit into the larger plot.

Usually.

I knew I didn't have enough plot for Wharf Rat, but I didn't expect what happened yesterday. Three days into NaNo and I slammed to a dead halt. No clue what comes next. I haven't written a word all day. (Tweets don't count.)

The problem is that I wrote a paragraph that would launch a subplot, which I need. Usually when I do that, I can come up with something on the fly, jump right in, and go back later and backfill necessary scenes to make the subplot fit in. But this time...nothing. Crickets. Dog barking in the far distance.

So now it's 9:20 pm and I spent most of the afternoon baking (pumpkin pies that turned out terrible, blueberry tarts that turned out terrible, rice pudding that turned out wonderful thank gawd) and most of the evening browsing membase (which was funny at first and then just depressed me). And I still have to write something.

*drums fingers*

I guess I'd better skip ahead and write a scene I know I'll need. I hate doing that. I feel like I'm cheating.

Halloween is over

Another Halloween is over, and another NaNoWriMo is about to begin. Hopefully I'll get some sleep in between.

I made a complicated costume that actually turned out really well, considering that in the end it was mostly held together with safety pins. I don't have a long mirror so I couldn't get a decent picture, but here are two pix I did get in the bathroom mirror. The shiny is the batwing cape I made from some gorgeous lacy cloth.

Oh, and I got pizza on the way home from work.

Jekyll wore a costume too. It came with a little hat but the costume was made for dogs and the hat wouldn't fit. He didn't mind the collar, at least. Jekyll is shy, but as the evening progressed he got to the point that he didn't freak out so much when kids came to the door. Sometimes he'd even stay in the living room, and all the kids commented on him.

One little girl asked what I was supposed to be dressed as. I said, "An evil queen who didn't have time to fix her hair."

Incidentally, I made a lot of effort to find unusual candy. The lollipops with plastic skeleton arms as sticks were a huge hit, as were the gummy mummies. My personal favorite was the plastic vampire teeth that came with a little pouch of candy blood. How cool is that? I made sure to give them to older kids, not toddlers.

The house looked particularly good, if I do say so myself.

The cold weather kept a lot of kids away, unfortunately, and I have a bunch of candy left over. I plan to take it to work tomorrow. The last thing I need during NaNo is candy to graze on while I type.

Questions to Ask Yourself at the Shoe Shop

1. Why do they put weird, useless buckles on otherwise attractive shoes?
2. Why is it so hard to find shoes these days with small heels? They're either flats or stilettos.
3. Cute shoe. Can I afford it?
4. Does it fit?
5. Is it comfortable?
6. Is it going to be comfortable after I've worn it for eight hours?
7. Is it appropriate for work?
8. Is it the right color for my work clothes?
9. Is it the right style to go with my work clothes?

I forgot to ask myself #9, which is why I have a pair of otherwise perfect shoes and now I have to buy a whole new wardrobe.

Sure, these shoes are both black and brown so I can wear them with anything except navy (and who wears navy these days anyway?), and sure they look great with dinosaur socks and jeans, but my work clothes are definitely on the frumpy side and these shoes aren't.

Maybe I should de-frump my closet.

This post has nothing to do with writing, so I'll bring up... [cue ominous music] NaNoWriMo! I'm in again this year, probably to finish my current WIP, Wharf Rat. Anyone else doing it?

Today I kill a man

Work on Shadow Trail is moving along briskly, I am happy to report. Camp NaNoWriMo has really helped me stay on task, so even though I'm behind in word count, I'm way ahead where I would have been otherwise. I'm up to 21,000 words total, although almost 6,000 of those words were written pre-June.

I have an outline, but I've added so much to the plot that I need to rewrite it. And I hadn't planned on this book being so fast-paced, so some of the chapters I had planned are going to be jettisoned starting today. For instance, according to the outline, the chapter I'm about to write should have had my main characters Marian and Jacob* hiking a few miles with a group of other refugees, with Marian getting increasingly worried about the noise they're making. Instead, in the New, Improved Outline, the chapter starts with the camp getting raided overnight and Marian and Jacob--who wisely camped well away from the others--discovering that everyone is gone. And I will probably have at least one person die.

And of course there will be a couple of people who escaped the capture, although I'm not sure what to do with them yet. But I'll figure it out.

This is a YA with light SF elements and a sweet romance between the two main characters, so with its pace being so fast I think I can wrap it all up in no more than 65,000 words. It would be wonderful if I could finish the whole thing by the end of June, because I've got another project, working title Wharf Rat, that I want to work on next. I started Wharf Rat a few weeks ago to see if I could write grimdark fantasy that's so popular these days. Well, I can't, but instead it's turning out funny as hell.

*Remember guy-who-looks-just-like-Alex? Who I said one day I would use his real name for a character? That's him.

Nothing much

I don't have anything much to say except I'm sick of looking at that photo of my catfish dinner from the other week. I've discovered that the picture is only interesting if I'm hungry. Otherwise it's disgusting. So I'm going to scroll it down a little by posting.

I brought my writing files up to date this evening. I have a plastic box with hanging file folders inside where I keep copies of contracts and so forth. It's useful to have it all in one place in case I need to check something. And as it happens, I discovered I have my rights back to a few older pieces. Now I need to find time to dig up reprint markets.

Tomorrow I have to go in to work at 8am and I probably won't get home until after 10pm. This is really, really unusual, fortunately, and with luck it's the last day like this I'll have to endure. I'm actually filling in tomorrow evening for someone who's on family leave. It's a secondary contract to my main job, so I get a separate little paycheck and everything. It won't be much money, but every little bit helps. But oh, do I dread tomorrow night.

Oh, and I've signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo for June! It's like regular NaNo but you pick a month in the summer to do it! I wasn't going to bother, but I want to work on my new YA project (working title: Shadow Trail) and this will be a good way to get a lot of words down quickly. I have an outline already, so it should go pretty smoothly. (Famous last words, of course. I just jinxed myself.)

One star is still a BIG FAT SHINY STAR

I got my first one-star rating on Goodreads. I guess that means I'm arrived! I wish the person had done a review so I'd know what they didn't like about the book, but at this stage of my career any rating--even a one-star--is good.

I hope everyone out there had a good Thanksgiving, or a good weekend if you're not in the U.S. My little vacation is almost over and this week will be crappy, since I'm punished for having a holiday weekend by having to work Monday-Saturday this week. No Thursday off.

My NaNo book is still hovering around 15,000 words, about half-done. I'd hoped to write a few chapters during my time off, but of course that didn't happen. Sometimes I think holidays are more stressful than not actually having the time off at all. On the other hand, I don't give one tiny damn that I'm not going to cross the NaNo finish line this year, which just tells me I shouldn't have bothered with it this year.

19 books behind

At the beginning of 2011 I set myself a goal on Goodreads of reading 50 books in the year. I figured I could do that, and I certainly did--in fact, I was so close to reaching my goal this spring that I upped it to 100 books.

Then Mom had her stroke and I stayed with her in the hospital for an entire month, and I was incapable of reading for about three weeks. I couldn't face fictional angst when real-life angst was so painful at the time. And even after I started reading again, for at least another month I wasn't reading at my usual pace.

Then we moved to our new house, Mom and I, and I sold a bunch of books at our local used bookstore. I need the shelf space. And since I like my Goodreads shelves to reflect exactly what's on my real shelves, I deleted the books I sold from Goodreads. Which took them off my list of "read" books, which dropped my count for the year.

Since then, despite gearing back up to my normal reading rate, I've been consistently 19 or 20 books behind my goal. And there are mere weeks left in the year. And I don't count books I don't keep. So I still need to read 30-odd books that I like enough to keep on my shelves by the end of the year.

Why do I do these things to myself? Oh yeah, and I'm 15,000 words behind on my NaNoWriMo book.

Downtime

I didn't realize how little writing time I actually have these days until I started NaNo last week. I'm still just over 4,000 words, despite a complete outline and a pleasant interest in the project. I manage about 500-1,000 words a night, which means I'm desperately behind. This may be the first year I don't cross the finish line, although if I actually finish writing The Cabin on Wildwood Hill (young MG, estimated total words 25-30k), I'll consider myself a winner.

Of course, I did have some free time yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful. I curled up in the living room with Mom and watched a big chunk of Project Runway season 4 on DVD. She loves that show and I ought to hate it...but I found myself sucked in and really enjoyed watching it. I had my laptop open, but I only wrote a few hundred words.

But this morning when I left for work, Mom said, "I wish you could stay home with me today. We had so much fun together yesterday." So the down time was worth it.

Short on sleep, short on words

It's Day Two of NaNo and I've written, um, 659 words. That includes the title and 'Chapter One.' But I work ten hours on Tuesdays and I'm still short on sleep, so I didn't have time to write last night. Tonight will hopefully be different!

Still no word from Angry Robot. Still no word from Apex. On Sunday, it'll have been my one-year anniversary of that story's shortlisting at Apex. I plan to write and ask if I maybe missed their response. A year+ on a 2,400 word story is just ridiculous.

State employees got a one-time bonus this month, so I have a little extra money. I think I'm going to buy a block of ISBNs and go ahead with some self-publishing. Everyone else is doing it, I feel left out! My goal is to make back the money I spend on the ISBNs.

Filled with anticipation

I found an outline for a younger middle grade book, an outline I wrote a year or two ago and promptly forgot all about. I looked it over today and thought, "Whoa! Here's my NaNo book!"

It's the perfect NaNoWriMo project, light and silly. It's about a group of wild animals--a deer, a raccoon, and a fox--who find a cabin in the woods and decide to make it look like people still live there, which will make it a safe den for them to hide in. Just go with it, okay? It'll probably only run about 30,000 words and I doubt it'll find a publisher, but I want to write it.

In fact, I can't wait to start. I have a wonderful, detailed outline and I made up names for all the characters today. It's so tempting to write just a smidge of it, maybe the first chapter--or two. But I have to wait.

I'll try to come up with a decent title before November. The working title is The Cabin on Wildwood Hill, and that's pretty awful. Any suggestions? All my creativity went into naming the Raccoon character Delicious-Smell-of-Walnuts (he goes by Walnut).

In for a seventh time

Today I ran into a friend I hadn't had a chance to really talk to for about ten years. She's working on a nonfiction project that sounds really, really good, and is planning to write fiction for NaNoWriMo. It was awesome to talk to her, and she also has a book blog that I would totally link to except that IT'S INVITE ONLY, KELLY, DID YOU REALLY MEAN TO DO THAT OR IS BLOGGER JUST MESSING WITH ME? We talked for an hour and a half in the YA corner of a bookstore. I'd forgotten how great it is to talk to someone who knows you're a writer, who's also a writer herself so she knows exactly what you mean when you complain about something writerly, and I'd especially forgotten the fun of bouncing ideas back and forth. So IT WOULD BE TOTALLY NICE IF YOU COULD INVITE ME TO YOUR BLOG, KELLY.

In similar news, a few Saturdays ago at work one of the instructors came in wearing a NaNoWriMo T-shirt. I said, "Hey, I've got that shirt too!" Turns out that teacher knows one of the English faculty who's just started a creative writing group. She invited me to join and I had to decline since it meets while I'm at work, but she also said they were going to do some NaNo write-ins this November. Hopefully I'll be able to go to some of those.

So I guess this means I'm doing NaNo again this year. Not at all to my surprise.

ETA: It's Book Dirt. I can access it today. Who knows what was going on last night?

Release day!

My paranormal romance/fantasy novel, The Taste of Magic, is now available as an ebook from Etopia Press! I love the cover, and this is a seriously fun book. It's the one I wrote back in, hmm, 2008 I think--in fact, if I remember correctly, it was my NaNoWriMo book that year.

I wish I were in the position right now to run a contest, but that will have to wait until probably next week. Until then, you can contest yourself with merely buying the book and reading it.

Ice Day

Ice day isn't as fun as snow day. We had some freezing rain overnight, which means this morning the roads (and trees, and houses, and power lines) were glazed over with ice. Fortunately I was off work today anyway (and my college wasn't even closed, just on a two-hour delay) and also fortunately, the temperature has already warmed up above freezing and the ice is melting fast.

Tomorrow's my last day at work before I get a two-week holiday! Of course I have to work ten hours--we've extended the testing center hours to make up for being closed Monday--but it shouldn't be too stressful and then I can recharge for the remainder of the year. I have a lot I want to finish up before 2011, mostly revisions. My main goal is to have the still-untitled romance finished and ready to sub in January. I also want to do the rewrites of The Trickster Society (I've already started and it's going to turn into a major rewrite, I think).

The hard part is keeping to a writing schedule while I'm off work. Structure helps me stay productive. NaNoWriMo helped me a lot this year, just by getting me back into the rhythm of writing every single day. Now I need to make sure I stick with it.

Whew!

Look at that! The monkey says I won!

I made it to 50,000 words at last--it was touch and go, moreso than previous years. At least, it felt harder this year than previous years. This is my sixth time playing and my sixth time crossing the finish line, and the first time I didn't have one dedicated project to work on.

I made the most of my time, though. I finished the steampunk Goldielocks story, which is edited and on submission now. I also finished the (short) rough draft of the untitled romance. After that I was going to work on Christopher Kaplan, and in fact I did write a few thousand words on it, but then I stalled out. As I mentioned last week, I've been reading nothing but murder mysteries this month, and since my brain is bathed entirely in murder-mystery juice as a result, I've been thinking about the Darla Dare mystery I've been wanting to write. In desperation to get my last several thousand words in for nano, I started the book. So far it's pretty good. Of course, I'm now to the point where I actually have to work out the plot, so I doubt I'll be continuing at the same pace. Still, it's going to be fun.

Now I have edits coming in from stuff I've sold this year--perfect timing, too, since I can now concentrate on them. I also want to revise and edit (and title) the romance so I can get it out hopefully by January or February. Lots of stuff to do!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My mom has her first published short story up at Every Day Fiction, "Turkey Shoot." She's very excited about it, and I think it's an awesome little story.

I stayed up until 1 am this morning to finish the (very) rough draft of my untitled romance novel. I still need to go back in and add about 10,000 words, but that shouldn't be too hard. I'm still not done with NaNoWriMo yet, though. Next project is work on Christopher Kaplan. Starting tomorrow.

Today I have a feast to eat! Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the U.S.! For everyone else, Happy Thursday.