What I should be doing is starting work on either a proposal (of a darker variety) for my editor or beginning the sequel to ALMOST TO DIE FOR. Instead, I've been goofing around on a short story.
Remember how I said that it's a bad idea to write to market? But that I also understand the impulse because I tend to get caught up in anthology descriptions? Well, I was looking for a home for a short story of mine that I wrote some years ago at Ralan.com, and as I often do, I started wandering through their anthology section. I came across a bunch that totally caught my eye and flared up my imagination. One is looking for stories about prostitutes, another wants stories about being the last [fill-in-the-blank] on earth, and yet a third is looking for space opera. So, I said to myself, hey! What about a story about the last gigolo in space??
So I started it, but I'm terrible at short stories.
I think all the things that make me pretty good at writing novels make me fairly awful at short stories. I tend to start with a simple idea and before I know it six or seven threads have spun out. A short story should really focus on one or two, I think, to be successful. (Although, honestly, what would I know?)
I'm about two thousand words into this short story ("Cold Chrome") and it's already spinning out of my control. But I'm going to keep writing on it until I stop having fun... or Monday comes, whichever happens first. (Monday is my deadline to get back on track with all my writing work, as Mason is finally back in school.)
Tonight, I'll be at MarsCON starting at 6:00pm. See all you local folks there!
1 comment:
Hey There - I just finished reading Tall Dark and Dead :-D Thank you for a new addiction :-D
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