At the beginning of 2012, I decided to mix it up a bit in my writer's journey. I've been on the
draft
revise-revise-revise
query
revise-revise-revise
query again
revise-revise-revise
hamster wheel with manuscripts for a few years now.
I've faithfully gone to conferences, latched onto amazing critique partners, blogged, and been a reading fiend to polish my skills. All my energies were focused on novels until...
Last January when I sold my first short story, a paranormal Hansel and Gretel extension called The Shimmer in the Woods that will be released any minute from Cliffhanger Books. Ironically I wrote it in an "I wonder if I can pull off a short story," moment.
What followed was a year of writing and working with whip cracking editors on three more short stories that have seen the light of day in the Journeys of Wonder anthology series (check out the sidebar).
Had I become a traitor to my manuscripts?
Not at all.
My short story work has honed and sharpened multiple aspects of my craft by forcing me to:
- Create a compelling story arc in a compacted space
- Develop characters that matter right off the bat
- Drop right into the middle of high stakes
- Agonize over word choice to get maximum bang for my buck
- World build in the blink of an eye
- Add immediacy to every beat
- Write in present tense instead of my beloved past tense
I've taken these mad short story skills and applied them to my existing manuscripts. It's been a great ride revisiting my darlings with a fresh set of eyes and making them the better for it.
What have you done to shake up your writing pattern?
If you want a brilliant "how to" on short story writing, run don't walk to get a copy of:
Ron Carlson Writes a Story
