Good writers are always looking for exercises to improve their skills. In my case, I find that short stories are good practice. Creating a tale with beginning, middle, and end, and in a limited space, forces me to tighten my work. The main character/s must be identifiable, the plot clean, the atmosphere immediate. There’s no place for rambling.
When I feel my longer narratives go stale, the short story format provides a break in perspective. I’m reminded to keep it smart and simple, to eliminate unnecessary words. Read my stories from the beginning. You’ll see I have a long way to go before I can be considered competent. But then, that’s half the fun.
Progression is a great teacher.
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One style of short-story writing that I like is called “flash fiction.” There are other names and many definitions. I like to say it’s fiction of less than three pages. I try for one. I don’t claim to be good, but I have fun.
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There may be some stories that are longer and will go in installments. If so, they’ll be marked as such. For example, I have a story I’ve been working on for the last couple of days, and it’s not done. I’m going to post what I have so far and add on later. As you may have guessed by now, these stories are mostly rough drafts. That’s okay. After a year of this, I’m going to go back and edit them, put them in a collection, and hope a publisher will be interested.
If you’re wondering whether it’s such a good idea to post these stories on the web when I have hopes of publishing, well, I wonder, too. If anything gets used without permission, I do have an electronic trail. Also, I’m not post the finished drafts of anything.
So, if you like this, please pass it on. The more visitors, the merrier the author!
Dear MJ Twain,
We have a mutual friend Erika Luhn, who has sent me your way. You see I am wrighting a book she thinks its good. I was wondering if you could take the time too look at it for me? Maybe proofread and edit it? Erika and some people that have read what I have so far say I should have it published, I don’t know about that? I am writing just for the Love of writing right now, this book is for me it is my outlit and we’ll see maybe! Can you e-mail me back and let me know? Maybe I can send you what I have so far and you tell me what you think.? I will continue to write even if it dosn’t get to be published. It would mean a lot to me just to have someone like you read it and give me feed back.
Thanks JMDG