THE ART OF SHORT STORY MAGIC
So, I decided while I was waiting to hear from queries on the original novel I had written to try and publish more of my poetry and try my hand at short story writing.
I was terribly nervous as I began because I had written probably everything in my life but short fictional stories. I did some research before I wrote it and loosely followed seven steps, outlined online from several sources that basically all said the same thing!
Find your premise or subject, write the story (in one sitting if possible), clearly define your protagonist, research, write the perfect title, edit, and the last one was publish. I said I loosely followed it because after I decided on what I wanted my story to be about, it sort of wrote itself. Most of my writing is like that. My protagonist is clearly defined from the first moment... Not so sure about the title thing, but I like it. I edited, stepped back a couple days, edited some more... got a quick beta read and took most of his advice.
I was happy with my first attempt. Well received among my regular readers, and polished and edited it was 3,266 words which is at least in the ballpark for a marketable short story.
Now about that publish part. Wow, there are so many options out there. I asked a couple of fellow writers and I read for the best part of three days to familiarize myself with the markets. Found the one I needed. Got excited and submitted it last night. I just kept looking until I found the ONE specific market that was looking for my story.
I know it’s not easy... If it was easy everyone would do it and... well we’d all be rich and kicked back instead of spending our lives on Google! It took me three days but now that I know more about the markets... my next short story which will be a little more what the general markets can support and will be easier to find a home for.
The Writer’s Journey is a long road, a road of getting to know both yourself ad the world around you. I absolutely love what I do and here’s hoping you do too! Here are some links to the pages that helped me a great deal!
Writer’s Journey...Write Every day!
Happy Hunting!