You know a blog post is hitting a nerve when a great many other writers are linking to it. Over at Declan Burke's blog, Crime Always Pays, he writes about his decision to set aside fiction writing for the time being. http://crimealwayspays.blogspot.com/2009/11/woe-is-me-etc-failing-writer-writes.html A crossroad that every writer finds themselves in many times during their writing life. This probably sounds trite, but I've found if you just let go, the pieces tend to fall together in ways you least expect. Something I call living without expectations - it allows me to be continually surprised and rarely disappointed.
Over at Lee Lofland's "The Graveyard Shift" there's an interesting discussion of the portrayal of women police officers. http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/?p=5180 I've never understood why women are considered the weaker sex anyhoo. I mean think about it, those pioneer women walked across the country right alongside the men, not to mention that they were probably pregnant at the time too. Strong women are the norm not the exception, even today.
Patti Abbott has an interesting discussion about flash fiction going over at her blog today. http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-should-flash-fiction-story-end.html In the comments she also asks an interesting question. Do most writers have a stronger length? For me I tend to write pieces under 2000 words. 1000 to 1500 being my sweet spot. I think writers develop a length strength from the way they learn how to write. I've always wrote in bits and pieces of time, so short worked for me, and my first writing group was for flash fiction which helped me strengthen those stories.
And this being Veterans Day, you won't find a better salute to the Veterans then the one Kate Thornton has on her blog today. Kate, herself is a Veteran and her short story "Veterans" is a great story to celebrate the sacrifice of our fighting forces. http://doesnt-take.blogspot.com/2009/11/veterans-day-2009.html Thank you to all who served and continue to serve so gallantly.
5 comments:
"I think writers develop a length strength from the way they learn how to write."
While that may be true, in part, early success and editorial expectations may also play a part in a writer developing a "length strength." For example, I've sold many stories to magazines that publish (or did publish) 2,500- to 3,500-word stories. Success breeds. Once I started selling stories that fit that niche, I wanted to sell more. So I wrote more. And the more I wrote at that length, the more I sold.
I still feel comfortable writing stories within those parameters, but lately I've been writing stories both longer and shorter in an attempt to break into new markets (Woman's World, for example) or to increase my income from pay-per-word markets that will consider stories up to 6,000 words.
So far I'm selling the longer stories, but have had no luck selling the shorter ones.
My first stories all came in at around 5000 words--literary journals like that. Now I look at them and wonder why I didn't cut. I can make the story stronger at 1/3 of that.
You're right, Michael. I hadn't thought about that. When I first started submitting on a regular basis it was to the zines where the top word count was 2000. Which explains my comfort zone.
I think cutting a story is the hardest part of writing, Patti. I go at it with a "kill your darlings" attitude because I know what I think is clever, usually what pulls the reader out of the story.
Now I'm trying to write longer and putting and find it difficult to add description and movements that I'd usually cut for shorter pieces.
Ah, comfort zones, so relaxing. But I find I stretch so much as a writer when I stretch myself out of my zone. Writing short stories (around 2500 words) will always be the easiest for me.
And is it just me, or have you noticed a tendency for either short (around 1000 words) or quite long (6000+ words)short story markets? There doesn't seem to be as many 2500 to 3500 words selling these days.
Many of the crime markets I'm finding are looking for stories in the 2000 to 3000 word zone, Conda. I keep falling short and I do so hate to pad a story to hit a word count.
Post a Comment