I'm not a writer who dabbles only in one genre. There are certainly loads of writers who have made their bones in a certain genre such as Stephen King (horror) and John Green (young adult fiction) but even they write stories in other genres. Stephen King may be one of the finest examples of that. I love to write stories that mostly deal with dark matter and last year I came to realize that writing young adult fiction is what I like best and I believe my strongest stories were born in that genre.
Before, I used to write zombie stories (something I'd love to return to), post-apocalyptic and dystopian tales and even Westerns. All of which I'd be happy to try again but what I've found liberating is that short stories can make my past novels into something so much better. I was always a novel man, I'd get tethered by a novel I'm working on only to have a new idea, scrap that novel and work on the new one. I never tried to write short stories on the side of my novels. By doing that, I could scratch the itch of new ideas and usually, short stories make the idea stand out as just an 800 word story. I’m not saying I've just discovered shorts, I've been writing them for years. It’s only recently I've started to organize myself with my workload.
When I woke up, it was a sunny morning and I spent it editing my young adult novella called 'Born Again in Solitude'. This was a story I was originally going to write as a novel but when I read back my planned plot, I didn't like it much. So, I wrote it without a plot, only a few key ideas and then the story wrote itself and it went somewhere my original plan never went. I also believe it to be a story because of its short length. The small cast have room to breathe and I hope they don't outstay their welcome. In editing I'll know.
Yesterday I decided that I'm going to unlock my bank account and start entering more competitions and magazine/website entries. I have so many ideas and I want to get them down on paper, write series' of shorts and more novellas. Even if they don't make the cut, I'd still like to self-publish them. I need to start sending these ideas out and let the world know that there's a new kid on the scene and he wants your attention. Well, we'll see what happens but in the meantime, I need to get cracking with these ideas. Ideas come and go at an instant and lately, a short story title has stuck around in my head, so clearly it's worth something. In my experience, if a writing thought stays behind to hang around then it's worth pursuing. Worthless ideas vanish quickly.
And so must I... to the internet, I mean. To write.
Songs of the Week:
Before, I used to write zombie stories (something I'd love to return to), post-apocalyptic and dystopian tales and even Westerns. All of which I'd be happy to try again but what I've found liberating is that short stories can make my past novels into something so much better. I was always a novel man, I'd get tethered by a novel I'm working on only to have a new idea, scrap that novel and work on the new one. I never tried to write short stories on the side of my novels. By doing that, I could scratch the itch of new ideas and usually, short stories make the idea stand out as just an 800 word story. I’m not saying I've just discovered shorts, I've been writing them for years. It’s only recently I've started to organize myself with my workload.
When I woke up, it was a sunny morning and I spent it editing my young adult novella called 'Born Again in Solitude'. This was a story I was originally going to write as a novel but when I read back my planned plot, I didn't like it much. So, I wrote it without a plot, only a few key ideas and then the story wrote itself and it went somewhere my original plan never went. I also believe it to be a story because of its short length. The small cast have room to breathe and I hope they don't outstay their welcome. In editing I'll know.
Yesterday I decided that I'm going to unlock my bank account and start entering more competitions and magazine/website entries. I have so many ideas and I want to get them down on paper, write series' of shorts and more novellas. Even if they don't make the cut, I'd still like to self-publish them. I need to start sending these ideas out and let the world know that there's a new kid on the scene and he wants your attention. Well, we'll see what happens but in the meantime, I need to get cracking with these ideas. Ideas come and go at an instant and lately, a short story title has stuck around in my head, so clearly it's worth something. In my experience, if a writing thought stays behind to hang around then it's worth pursuing. Worthless ideas vanish quickly.
And so must I... to the internet, I mean. To write.
Songs of the Week:
- Deliverance' by Opeth
- Bleak'by Opeth
- Blackwater Park by Opeth
- Ghost of Perdition by Opeth
- Hope Leaves by Opeth
- By the Pain I See in Others by Opeth