To Short Story or Not To Short Story...

I'm having one of those moments. It's a bit like those self-doubt moments but not as bad.

When I first started writing short stories (seriously, rather than just for fun) it was as much as I could do to make 1000 words. The thought of a 2000 word story would have had me shaking my head in disbelief.

Over the years I've gradually increased that figure. First it was 1200, then 1500, 1800, 2000. But now my problem is trying to keep to under 2000 words. Basically I'm failing. I think my brain and fingers are working to their own plan and consider 2500+ quite okay.

My other difficulty is that my ideas just don't stay small enough, they keep wanting to turn into much bigger projects. Okay I won't be short of ideas but it isn't helping me write shorter stories.

Perhaps I let my imagination run away with my ideas and I need to exert more control.

Maybe I need to work on one of my longer projects for a while- it's happened that way before.

Perhaps some writers are short story writers and don't want to produce a novel, so it's not unreasonable to assume there will be some for whom the reverse is true and those who want to do both.

I want to do both, but I'm realistic enough to know that if I can't get the short story right, then a successful novel is going to be even more difficult.

Well, back to the short story editing.

One day, one day...

A Book to Help Me...

Well I hope it will...

I know a few writers (on a forum I contribute to) have mentioned Evan Marshall and his 'Section Sheets', so last week I had a look at Amazon to find out more. 'The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing' had a look inside option available, so I was able to see what the book covered and read an example.

I bought it from another online supplier in the end- and it popped through my letterbox this morning. So I'll be reading this over the next few days and making notes.

Back in January I got the feedback from the two novel competitions at the writers' club and it was clear that I had a problem with my characters- a character who was dead was the most interesting one and the others weren't too good- a bit flat.

I decided I needed a new approach and since then have been considering what I needed to do, but health issues have rather interfered with the process to date.

Meanwhile more ideas and characters have been stacking up. I know that's good in one way, as I'll have plenty of options to work on.

So I've resolved that as soon as I finish the current short story I'm editing- and get it sent off, I'm going to make a start on one of my longer ideas- a novella length.

I decided that the Plan just might help with my characterisation problems- and having only taken a brief flick through I can already see elements that will help me.

I know my strong area is dialogue, so I can concentrate on improving my weak points now.

I'll let you know if it works...

Have you had, or got, a weak spot in your writing? If you're willing to share, how have you tried or resolved that issue?

Now I'm off to start reading...