Short Stories

Pick me up and take me away…

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I started work on a new short story. It’s…different from what I usually write. For one, I don’t know how its going to end (usually when I write, I have an idea of where its going to end up). I started with an image that popped into my mind, and from there let the twists and turns develop. But now, about twelve pages in, I finally have a view of what the main character’s goal might be. But it could change.

As always, I’m concerned about my influences being a mite too obvious. This piece is feeling a bit Prisoner-esque, hopefully minus the epic mental trip of the finale (and I don’t mean imply that this little story is even close to the same level as The Prisoner). Oh well.

I enjoy writing this story. The main character strikes me as a bit of an idiot, but his antagonists(?) are wonderfully enigmatic. I like peeling away the layers of the characters and discovering the world. I doubt it will be a very polished piece, but I feel like there’s potential in it.

And it takes place in Italy. Finally. I’ve been here two months–you would think that by now I would have set all of my short stories here!

Looking Ahead: Some Goals for 2010

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

As 2009 winds down, I turn my thoughts from Christmas dinner (roast beef and English roast potatoes…yum!) and the year ahead. 2009 was a good year and the blank expanse of 2010 is promising (if daunting). I have a few writing goals set for myself.

1. Write one(+) short story a month

Given that my short story production this year was…three…this will be a definite improvement. I hope to write a variety of genres. Fantasy, sci fi, historical, mystery…who knows?

2. Submit work/enter contests

I’ve received some encouragement to submit various short stories to magazines. I’ve wanted to submit my work since high school, but never felt that I was good enough for publication outside of the school literary magazine (and have refrained from my college’s lit mag because my work is so atypical of what they publish). Part of my hesitation is rejection, but I know I’ll have to deal with it. Aim high, fall fast; I have years to improve.

3. Read more

Yes, I need to read more. I always do (I’ve joked about changing the name of the blog to She Reads Too Much). Fortunately, my courses for next semester look like they’ll be chock full of interesting (and informative) reads: I’m taking a course on Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio along with one on Florentine architecture.

4. Write another novel

I’m going to write the first draft, with hope. Either my pilots or my alt reality WWIIesque Resistance piece. Although this may be pushed aside due to writing my thesis/distinction piece/grad school applications. Though, I do have roughly a month before the semester begins, and two months summer vacation…hmmm…I’ll just have to not let research distract me too much. 😀

Photo (C) Beth

Blocked.

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I don’t call it writer’s block. It isn’t. I can write a story, but…ugh. There’s no soul. No clicking.

I’m participating in a Short Story Secret Santa. I need to write a short story for someone based on her prompt. I’ve been working on it, but really, nothing is coming. I’m writing and writing. As usual, I’m having more fun coming up with the symptoms of various fake illnesses than how these illnesses play into the story. And researching Victorian medicine (I went to the Warren Anatomical Museum a couple of weeks ago. Utterly fascinating).

I’m sitting and staring blankly at the page, aimlessly with no direction. After picking up a vague direction (stemming from John Snow’s discovery of how cholera is transmitted), I put it down again. It wasn’t working. I picked up a different direction, with one of the same MCs, but this time in a supporting role. No avail. I’m thinking that I need a different MC and some semblance of a plot not tied at all to Snow, cholera, or other infectious diseases.

NaNo nearly upon us…

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

National Novel Writing Month is nearly upon us!

Continuing with my renewed love for short stories, I’m “rebelling” this year and producing a collection. No, its not PAaA. This collection will follow a character I’ve been developing since this August, a fellow named Pryce. The stories will be adventure fantasy tales set around the world and through this guy’s life. Woohoo!

My goal for NaNo is to write at least ten shorts. I haven’t completed short stories in a while, and I’m hoping to come up with a few salvageable pieces to submit to magazines and boost up visibility. Plus, it’d be pretty swell to have my work in print!

Pryce is a fun character to write about. He could be a villain if twisted in the right direction, or if he went through certain situations. It could be fun, writing about the progression of a person to villainy. Hmm…perhaps I have my overarching theme.

Experiments are fun!

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Work on PAaA has slowed for the time being; however, I’ve been thinking about the structure of the novel. I’ve had a renewed interest in writing short stories; also, a few interesting characters revealed themselves.  They all have different perspectives that would be very fun to explore as main characters.

So, I’ve decided to experiment a bit.

The book will be written as a series of interconnected short stories, featuring many of the same characters, like “Claude’s Dog” by Roald Dahl. CD is a novella comprised of four or five short stories with interconnecting subplots. That’s how PAaA will run.

Part of the reason why I’m attempting this is because I want to follow EP, a female character, around her job. And as a snippet writer, this may help me from jumping around too much. 🙂

Characters Without a Plot may Apply (the same is true for plots without characters)

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I’ve decided that I’m going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year; however, I’m not going to be working on Per Ardua ad Astra for it. This will leave me free to not feel guilty about writing parts of it now.

Lately, I’ve had a hankering to work on short stories. So? I’m going to write an anthology of shorts. At the moment, I don’t have a particular theme connecting everything. It may be a collection of spec fic shorts. Or maybe a bunch of stories about my pilots. Who knows?

As I haven’t written short stories in a long time, one may end up being a novella. The stories might be flash fiction. They might be traditional shorts. I’m getting rather excited about this. I’ve developed a character sans plot; now, perhaps he’ll get one. Or two. Maybe I’ll be uber-geeky and write a fanfic.