Short stories are not something I feel especially qualified to write these days.  There have been lots of story ideas jotted down, but only one written.

It’s time to change that.

I’ve been giving some thought to how I can get around the short story ‘block’ I’ve developed for myself.  I had planned to write several over Christmas holidays, but, as it worked out, I wrote exactly 0 new words.

You might wonder why I’d be concerned about short stories.  Books are the way to go… aren’t they?  Ultimately, I’d say that I DO want to spend the majority of my time with novel-length works, but I also know that many of the story ideas I get shouldn’t be stretched that far.  I also know that a novel is a LOT of work; I need something smaller to play with when I just don’t feel like digging into a much longer work.

Last Tuesday I had an thought about how to get that much needed practice.  It seemed like it could work, so I thought about it some more.  The longer it percolated in my brain, the more excited I became.  Here’s the idea:

I’m going to write 30 new short stories in 30 days.  Let’s call it NaShoStoMo (National Short Story Month) just to rip off Nanowrimo and Nanoedmo.  Maybe a better name will come to me later.

The rules I’ve set myself are pretty simple:  1 story per day, length must be a minimum of 6 words and a maximum of 6,000 words per story and every story must be different.  No story can be continued beyond the end of the day and must be a finished work.  Editing is optional.

I know what you’re thinking.  I’m not starting this at the beginning of the month.  You are correct about that; I probably should have thought of this either earlier or later in the year.  For this year, I’m doing it now.  Next year, I’ll look at finding an actual month (like April) that has 30 days in it and go from there.

Hopefully, when I’m done the 30 days, I’ll have at least one work of fiction that can find an audience.  If not, I will have gotten into the habit of writing every day again and will feel comfortable writing a short in a single sitting.

Just to keep myself honest, I will report every week on my progress.  You will get story titles and word counts.  If you want to join me, please do.  Just post your progress in the comments every week.  It should be fun.

Since you’re reading this 2 days after I’ve started, try 28 in 28 and see how you do.

My progress so far:

• Tuesday, February 19th:       Title:  The Exhibit               Length:  946 words
• Wednesday, February 20th:  Title:  The Blood Red Moon  Length:  759 words
• Thursday, February 21st:     Title:  Politics                      Length:  6 words

As I said before, I’m hoping that this exercise will get me writing again everyday.  At worst, I’ll have a number of short stories that will never see the light of day.  At best… well who knows?

It could very well be that you already have a plate full of projects and simply cannot take the challenge.  How about writing 1 short story?  I’d love to see just how many new stories we as a group can finish in the next 4 weeks (Sean, I know you have several you’re working on).

We’ll set the timer:  Start on February 21 and finish at midnight on March 20th.  Sound good?

If I do this alone, no biggie.  But I’d love to have two or three partners (or more) to keep me going.  Let me know what you think.

Talk to you next week.

Some weeks a topic has jumped up screaming “Pick me, pick me!”.  Those are the weeks that I can write a post in very short order.  Then there are times like now when I have several ideas to write about, except none of them really reach out and grab me.

I think I’d rather have one idea that excites me than several that say “Meh”.  It just goes to show that a wealth of ideas is not always all that it’s cracked up to be.

This week has been an interesting one.  I’ve had some highs, some lows and several new story project ideas that I know will turn out well.  And, I’ve got some ideas that actually scare the heck out of me.

Has that ever happened to you?  You know, you have a great idea except you’re afraid that you’re not a good enough writer to do it justice?  I’ve had two or three like that in the past two months and I’ve come to realize that it’s not a bad thing.  Something that is tough and challenging can only force you to be a better writer than you are today.

That’s the theory anyway.

The ideas seem so profound that I know I must sit down and work out how to bring them to the light of day.  That’s going to mean working out what characters are necessary, what setting, timeframe, etc.  It should be a lot of fun.

The way I see it, it should be a no-lose situation.  If the story turns out the way I hope it will, it can’t help but be published.  If it falls short, I’ll still be a better writer than I am today.  It’s just going to be so much work!  That’s the part I’m not looking forward to.  Still, nothing good happens without some cost.

On another note, the experiment in Query Letters is proceeding well.  Tuesday I received a request from one publisher for 3 chapters and a synopsis.  You’d better believe I was feeling pretty stoked about that!  I know that I’m still a LONG way from being published, but any interest is motivating.  That means that I’m going to continue editing rather than focus on writing something new.  The plan is to have two books circulating, looking for a home.

Speaking of writing something new, I have been working on a couple things (just not focusing on them).  One is a short story I’ve had in mind for quite a long time.  I’m envisioning it as a short short or less than 1,000 words.  I’m forcing brevity of prose to try and make it really snap.  I’ve also got an idea for some episodic fiction that I’ll be writing with the intent to podcast.

Creatively, things have really been coming together the past while.  I think I’ve got something like six or seven new story ideas that all feel promising.  The fact that I’ve been reading more (Natural Order Master – LE Modisett Jr., Dragon Harper – Todd McCaffery, The Skystone – Jack Whyte) may have something to do with it.  I’ve also been listening to Mur Lafferty’s “I Should Be Writing” Podcast the past while (http://isbw.murlafferty.com/).  Throw in some writing show and Tee Morris and I’ve been getting all the rah rah that I need to kick things up a notch.  It feels pretty darn good.

As it turns out, the lows I spoke of earlier were life-related and the highs were all reading/writing related.  Funny how the balance changes sometimes.  Still, I feel more certain than ever that I will find a publisher.  It may not be tomorrow or next week, but it will happen.

Have a great weekend!