Length is Important

[xakara]

I'd ask where your minds went but why waste breath I might need at the end up of my life, eh? No, we'll all concede that my lovely little Kittens are a bit filthy minded and that's why they love me. :)

Now, first things first, Sunday Setup for the week: Write, Clean, Website. 

Okay now back to length, by which of course, I'm referring to writing. I'm not sure how many of you have noticed but brevity is not my natural inclination. So much so that I often didn't describe myself as a writer but a novelist so people immediately knew I was in it for the long haul. I felt novellas and short stories were beyond me and never gave much thought to them as a viable outlet until this year. 

After finishing Bloodsprite, my brain needed to recharge and refresh while I personally still needed to write. I found an open call for an anthology and decided to try my hand at it because at worse, I'd surpass the word limit and then I'd have an extra story laying around for some future project of the right kind. Can't ever argue against stock stories. 

So I went for it, and to my surprise enjoyed it, although the wordlimit was too short for my taste. I ended up not being chosen for the anthology but was passed on to another editor who bought the story. In an ironic twist, SHIFTING PASSIONS is the first thing that will be published and I've gone on to write two other novellas and have plans to write four more. It was a stretch, a learning experience (although admittedly, I get to put back in the two scenes I cut since there's no word limit now. Yay) and I'm very glad I did it. I hope I feel the same way about flash fiction. 

Ficlets can be entertaining to say the least and when moondancerdraketold me about a horror anthology consisting of LGBT flash fiction, I thought, hey, sounds fun. Completely outside of my current range, but fun nonetheless. As if the Universe was conspiring to sway me, I came across yet a second open call looking for a bit of horror and romance flash for Halloween. So I said to myself, I said "Self, we really need to try our hand at this and see how close we get" and my Self said "Yeah....Right". So we went for it. 

My initial goal was 900 words...I did 2000. Oh well, it was a first attempt, I liked the story, I like the situation, it's too long, but now I have a lovely free read for you Kittens when the website is up. I went on to try a second time with a different story. My goal was 1000 words, I got 1390, closer, six-hundred words closer, so hey, improvement. I was even able to edit that down to the under 1k so definite progress. Third attempt, 1000 word goal, and 1100 word outcome, definite improvement. And here's the kicker, I edited it down to 1k and think I might like that version better. Of course, it was a story that could have been 2500k and made me happy, but that's neither here nor there. 

What I'm getting at here is that practice in another aspect of your craft is as important as improving the parts you shine at. Stretching to uncomfortable limits can help you better understand why you like what you like and introduce you to new things you never thought of before. Am I saying I find I like ficlets and want to write many more of them? No. Nope. Not at all. If I never have to write to a 1k limit after this, it'll be too soon. 

But what I have found is that the many ideas I'll never have time to throw 100k at, or even 10k at, may be given life in 3k increments to free my mind of them and to, of course, thrill and delight you my faithful four readers. 

Okay, off to practice some more, I do, after all, have to do this thing three more times to meet the 5 stories per author submission guideline. Wish me luck. Yes, I expect you to wish me luck even though you get the stories that are too long. Why? Because it's the neighborly thing to do for Pete Petrelli's sake! Come on now. 

Lengthy Ramble Done

~X

Comments

[sanguinepen.livejournal.com]

An author friend of mine told me this, because I said I just kept getting told my short stories should be novels.

They tell me all my poems should be short stories, all my short stories should be novels, all my novels should be trilogies, and all my trilogies are unpublished...

[xakara.livejournal.com]

Some folks are meant for short hit and runs on a world. But the rest of us get to a world and just have to stay a while. It's just how we're wired and who we are.

There is no story that's ever come to me where I didn't also get more of the world than anyone would ever know.

I only think in trilogies. We should form a club. :)

~X

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry, I didn't actually read your post, your font and color selection is too hard on my eyes.

I wanted to let you know that I posted the answers from last weeks 13 Q's about Jury Duty, it's up at http://anyapples.blogspot.com/

[xakara.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the difficulty. Thanks for letting me know the color is hard on some screens. I'll put in on my caution list. ;)

~X