The month of November (and therefore, NaNoWriMo) is 10 days in. That's 10 days of solid writing (okay, I lie -- nine, because I skipped a day) after having not written a long piece since 2009's NaNo. I'll admit, getting back in the 'writing every day' seat is hard for me. I've focused on short stories this year, all of them under 8k words each and taking less than a week to write each one, the whole year figuring I'd get around to writing another long piece 'eventually'. I've been waiting for the perfect time...only the perfect time never seemed to arrive, so I decided to use NaNo 2010 to finish a novel.
I spent October brainstorming and wading through half-formed plots and possible ideas. I knew I wanted it to be something fun to write. So I picked a faerie idea that I figured would be perfect -- wrong. Not only was it painful, like pulling teeth, I ended up counting my words obsessively after every 200 words done. I got maybe 5k in before abandoning it without a second look back.
I thought: Okay. I need to focus; something fun. What is fun? Not faeries...not really, especially not in a piece with no planned romance (I'm a sucker for -some kind- of romance!) Werewolves? Yes. Yes and yes. So I picked up and 'recycled' a world I had created before and worked up a cast that I liked. Ran with it for 5k before I realized that my story was nearly told and no matter what I tried to do, the plot that I had just wasn't long enough. Lunacy will be a short I'll finish in December -- NaNo's not the time for it.
Time to regroup...again. Fun. What was fun last year? Obviously Straydog, my '09 NaNo, was, because I finished it at 65k by November 25th. I went over it in my head and decided that I could write a sequel to that, starring a secondary character, Chaz, as my protagonist. Overnight I had a semi-plot, a group of characters (including most of Straydog's cast) and all I had to do was write it. I had an opening sentence in mind...but when I sat down to write? Something else came onto the page. Something strange that flowed wonderfully and gave me 2k without letting me pause once to consider my word count.
5.5k in now...and I don't have any idea what the heck I'm writing. I don't know why the Magi and the Wyverns are enemies. I don't have any idea what Wylde wants or why the slave, Kascien, pits dragon-dog hybrids against one another and burns the losers in a Pyre. I don't particularly enjoy working without an outline... yet here I am. Every night I'm churning out more than enough words to keep the story going and it's taking enough turns to keep my interest piqued. Sure, I don't like every word I put out, but it's editable -- that's what December's for.
I know me -- in about a week I'll be moaning about how hard it is, and how I can't possibly continue, but for now? I'm rather enjoying myself :)
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Short Stories
I have been writing since I was in 3rd grade, when a buddy and I did a very cliche and probably copyright-infringing story, in which I wrote and he illustrated. To be completely honest, it sucked. After being pulled from public school in 4th grade to be home-schooled, I found writing to be very enjoyable. I created and created, never got bored with it. Worlds and characters came to life. Some days, I would come late to dinner, I was so wrapped up.
Looking back, I realize every single story I started was a novel-length work. All I read were novels, I didn't even know what a short-story was! I got a subscription to Writer's Digest, I started getting the yearly "Writer's Market" and I would read everything...but I'd skip the magazine/short-story publication part and just go over novel markets.
No matter what idea I began to work with, it turned out to a 30k+ work, to the point where I actually believed that I could not write short, no matter what. I kept this belief for years, even after I read enough that I should get my 'foot in the door' with short fiction before I attempt to sell a novel. Still, I didn't attempt it until I met an online friend who did both novels and shorts. I read up on short stories, read a bunch of shorts in my genre, got several anthologies from my library.
Then I started writing. My first short pieces were erotic snippets with little plot. I slowly added plot as I went. Then I braved my typical novel-genre: fantasy. I thought up a few ideas, started writing them. Of course, first attempts are pretty sad; they had little character growth (my line of thinking was: how the heck do you show character growth in 6k or less?!).
I got a few, what I thought, were exceptional ideas. I tried writing them then, and they just...lacked a spark. So I saved them in my writing folder and ignored them. Continued to practice. Needing something to write the other week, I stumbled upon the plot for one I'd shuffled away. Not only did it come out strangely poetic, it seemed to mark something for me: I could write short fiction!
Now, the thing was: yeah, so I could write it, but was it any good?
A friend of mine had found markets for five or six shorts of hers through a website called Duotrope's Digest and suggested I try browsing it. Long story short, after a few attempts at placing pieces, I ended up sending my most-recent piece to an anthology, if anything else, to get over my fear of pushing the dreaded 'Send' button.
They emailed me back within a day. I expected a rejection, another "this isn't right for our market/collection/whathaveyou". Instead, it was positive, a "we like this, but we'd like to see you apply these edits and alter the ending". Let me tell you, going through that document of red changes was scary. But I did it. I edited, changed the ending a little, and sent it back and they accepted it. The anthology should be out Fall 2010.
So not only can I now write short-stories, I obviously wrote Going Home well enough to get published. I have more confidence now in my short pieces. The weird thing is: now that I've been writing shorts for the past few months, trying to come up with my next novel idea is rather hard! My mind is thinking in short-scenes...and nothing I come up with has enough flesh to sustain a 50-80k novel!
Oh boy! Hopefully I'll get an idea soon.
Until then? Looks like I'm gonna keep writing short stories!
Looking back, I realize every single story I started was a novel-length work. All I read were novels, I didn't even know what a short-story was! I got a subscription to Writer's Digest, I started getting the yearly "Writer's Market" and I would read everything...but I'd skip the magazine/short-story publication part and just go over novel markets.
No matter what idea I began to work with, it turned out to a 30k+ work, to the point where I actually believed that I could not write short, no matter what. I kept this belief for years, even after I read enough that I should get my 'foot in the door' with short fiction before I attempt to sell a novel. Still, I didn't attempt it until I met an online friend who did both novels and shorts. I read up on short stories, read a bunch of shorts in my genre, got several anthologies from my library.
Then I started writing. My first short pieces were erotic snippets with little plot. I slowly added plot as I went. Then I braved my typical novel-genre: fantasy. I thought up a few ideas, started writing them. Of course, first attempts are pretty sad; they had little character growth (my line of thinking was: how the heck do you show character growth in 6k or less?!).
I got a few, what I thought, were exceptional ideas. I tried writing them then, and they just...lacked a spark. So I saved them in my writing folder and ignored them. Continued to practice. Needing something to write the other week, I stumbled upon the plot for one I'd shuffled away. Not only did it come out strangely poetic, it seemed to mark something for me: I could write short fiction!
Now, the thing was: yeah, so I could write it, but was it any good?
A friend of mine had found markets for five or six shorts of hers through a website called Duotrope's Digest and suggested I try browsing it. Long story short, after a few attempts at placing pieces, I ended up sending my most-recent piece to an anthology, if anything else, to get over my fear of pushing the dreaded 'Send' button.
They emailed me back within a day. I expected a rejection, another "this isn't right for our market/collection/whathaveyou". Instead, it was positive, a "we like this, but we'd like to see you apply these edits and alter the ending". Let me tell you, going through that document of red changes was scary. But I did it. I edited, changed the ending a little, and sent it back and they accepted it. The anthology should be out Fall 2010.
So not only can I now write short-stories, I obviously wrote Going Home well enough to get published. I have more confidence now in my short pieces. The weird thing is: now that I've been writing shorts for the past few months, trying to come up with my next novel idea is rather hard! My mind is thinking in short-scenes...and nothing I come up with has enough flesh to sustain a 50-80k novel!
Oh boy! Hopefully I'll get an idea soon.
Until then? Looks like I'm gonna keep writing short stories!
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