I am the first person that will tell you that I am elaborate. I love words, and I love writing lengthy stories. For the longest time, I was under the assumption that meant I had to stick to novels, and chapter fiction.
In fact, that might have been why I liked writing chaptered pieces. It was because I could tell as much of the story I wanted. A little bit of the story in a few thousand words a chapter.
In recent weeks, I have managed to debunk my own assumptions. Yes, I had written two short stories previous to this. And even writing those, I feel like I had to sort of push too much, or limit what I wanted in the story in order for it to be considered a short story.
When I began work on “His Other Side”, I did it with a lot of reluctance. The main reason is that I was not sure I could tell such a challenging story within a short story. I did what I normally do. I set up a sort of ”Start, Middle, End” perameter, and forced myself to stick to it as best as I could.
That was well and good for the first draft. My beta readers, Aubrie and Trish, however, both felt that the story had been rushed. So when I re-wrote it, I took a good hard look at it. I changed some things around, and used the comments button on MS Word for the first time ever.
The second draft came out much better. I am considering it finished, but I might go back and look at it again one last time before I attempt to submit it. There is one thing at the beginning that still bothers me. I just can’t see what yet.
My point is, that I found out that I could tell a good, fast paced story, and include my precious details without over doing it.
I have fallen in love with the short story now, because we have come to a sort of understanding, that medium and I. I’m not saying I have mastered it. No, not at all. In fact, I really want to learn more about the mechanics of writing a short story, so I can perfect my craft.
Anyone have any good book recommendations for Short Story construction? All suggestion welcome.
