Okay. Three weeks. Three stories under 1000 words.
While I don’t think that it’s getting any easier to write these things, I think, at least the last one, is a bit better than the others.
Just like anything, if you practice a little, you get more comfortable with it.
Gauging the pace of these sub 1000 word stories is tricky, but I think that’s the part I am getting better at. I like to open stories rather slowly. Give the reader lots of time to acclimatize and get into whatever it is I am writing. That’s not really a great way to write a story that only takes a few minutes to read. I still had to trim a little to get under the word count, but not over 200 words like the first week.
So, what do I hope to learn by writing these? In such a tight word count, I can’t be flowery or wander too far. I have to make sure my dialog gets to the point, or if I’m doing my job right, several points. I’m learning to echo concepts, without, I hope, making the text repetitive. I’m learning that I can go from concept to finished story in a handful of hours, and I can do it repeatably. Reliably.
I think that all of these stories will require several passes and probably more than a handful of additional words before they are ready to send out, but they are done. They are self-contained, functional stories.
I think that’s all I really aspire to write.
While I don’t think that it’s getting any easier to write these things, I think, at least the last one, is a bit better than the others.
Just like anything, if you practice a little, you get more comfortable with it.
Gauging the pace of these sub 1000 word stories is tricky, but I think that’s the part I am getting better at. I like to open stories rather slowly. Give the reader lots of time to acclimatize and get into whatever it is I am writing. That’s not really a great way to write a story that only takes a few minutes to read. I still had to trim a little to get under the word count, but not over 200 words like the first week.
So, what do I hope to learn by writing these? In such a tight word count, I can’t be flowery or wander too far. I have to make sure my dialog gets to the point, or if I’m doing my job right, several points. I’m learning to echo concepts, without, I hope, making the text repetitive. I’m learning that I can go from concept to finished story in a handful of hours, and I can do it repeatably. Reliably.
I think that all of these stories will require several passes and probably more than a handful of additional words before they are ready to send out, but they are done. They are self-contained, functional stories.
I think that’s all I really aspire to write.