Friday, September 29, 2006

Short Story Time


It's been awhile since I've written a short story. In fact, I think it's been well over a year. That's too long. I've had a few short stories published, but then I largely abandoned writing them to work on my novels. And to tell the truth, I sort of miss them. A short story's first draft can literally be done in a matter of hours and the final draft done in a few days. Not so the novel.

While working on my novel the other evening, a minor character appeared out of nowhere in a scene with the main character. This fascinating woman suddenly jumped to life on the page, and I wanted to know more about her. But she had already served her purpose in my novel and wouldn't be making any more appearances. And then it hit me. Write her story. Only I knew her story wasn't meant to be a novel, but much, much smaller.

I'm eager to start work on it, but since I'm about 10k words (or possibly less) away from finishing my novel, it will go on the backburner for just a bit. But after the novel is finished, I think the short story will be a nice change of pace.

8 comments:

  1. I haven't been able to write a short story since I was a teenager. For some reason, I just can't seem to keep things short. Maybe one day I'll figure it out again, cause I did used to write them all the time!

    Love the puppy pic :-)

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  2. After I completed my first novel a few months ago I wrote a short story just for a change. And I published it so that's the best change I've ever made! LOL

    I like writing short stories but after I wrap up these two I've been working on, I'm back to writing a full length novel. Gonna do it for Nano - gulp. ;)

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  3. That sounds wonderful. I love writing short stories :)

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  4. Anonymous6:31 PM

    Have fun with the story! I've never been good at writing short. It's a true art form! :)

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  5. What a gorgeous dog!

    I'm looking forward to starting a short story in the next week or so ready for a competition. I'm waiting 'til I've seen Patrick Swayze on Weds in the hope that I'll be inspired...

    Good luck with finishing the rest of your novel.
    Sue :-)

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  6. hey hun, I would love to read it!! What a cute pup!!

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  7. That's a good idea, Melissa... I can't remember the last time I wrote a short story.

    And OMG. Can I have your dog???

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  8. Stephanie - well, actually, we don't have that dog anymore. He was an absolutely ADORABLE puppy, but he turned out to be a very very big pain in the TUSH when he grew up. He would challenge our St. Bernard to fights whenever there was food around and it was only a question of "when" the St. Bernard would lose his temper (being about five times bigger than the pup) and harm him. So we had to give him away. I still miss the little guy, but we were also worried that he might turn that ferocious temper on the kids.

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