November is National Write a Novel Month, also known as Nanowrimo. The goal is to write the first draft of a novel, producing at least 50,000 words. This will be my second year as a participant. Over the next couple of weeks I will be providing tips for those who want to participate. The first,
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Article by Cesar Torres I’ve been a writer all my life. By the time I was twelve, I was already finger typing on my family’s Olivetti, emulating my favorite novelists. I went on to journalism, and have worked in an editorial capacity since then. In my twenties I wrote short stories, but I could never
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Article By David Jace I started writing novels before I was in high school. The problem with that sentence is, I started, but never finished them. Until now. In April of 2008 I finally finished writing a novel. Now that I’m counting the years, I realize that I spent over half my life, nearly two-thirds,
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Article by Lillie Ammann When a writer contacted me to edit his 164,000 word novel, I told him publishers don’t like books that long. We discussed the possibility of breaking the novel into two separate stories. However, when I read the manuscript, I realized the word count could be cut dramatically. He was appalled at
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A writers’ group is a collection of writers who get together to discuss each other’s work. Each writer submits a piece to the group and as a group, suggestions are given, issues are discussed and an effort is made to provide guidance to make each piece better. This is the model of most creative writing
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The Law of Diminishing Randomness: As a good story moves forward, the events become less and less random. One of the differences between real life and a short story is that in a short story, events happen for a reason. In the ordinary world, there are plenty of events that happen in the day that
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Writing the first draft of a short story is distinctly different from writing the first draft of a novel. Novels ten to require a great deal of forethought and planning. Additionally, each progressive chapter locks you further into the plot, limiting your options as you get closer to the end. With a short story, you
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One of the differences between a short story and a novel is that the idea for a short story doesn’t have to be as complex. In the case of a novel, you will usually want to have a pretty good plan going in. You will want to know all about your protagonist and have a
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What is the definition of a short story? I define a short story as a brief, focused fictional piece that contains at minimum the following key elements: plot, setting, characterization and some sort of resolution. How long should a short story be? In my opinion, the optimal length for a short story is between ten
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Housekeeping: Short Stories, Fiction and Fun
I want to thank the people who helped out with my series on short stories, especially those who left comments. I’m going to move on to some other topics now, but I haven’t run out of things to say about short stories so I’ll get back to the subject again soon. Meanwhile, I encourage people
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