Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: accomplished
  • Music: Kate in the shower singing 'American Pie.'

Adventures in short-story land.

I am primarily a writer of novel-length works. I could offer a bunch of babble about how this is due to the scope of my artistic vision, but a) a lot of my friends are short story writers, and would slap me, and b) it'd be crap. I just have trouble thinking in blocks of less than twenty thousand words. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, just that when it does, it's pretty rare.

The fact that I recently got a rewrite request on a short story submission that was essentially 'please increase your word count' is thus hysterical.

I'm doing pretty well, by my standards; I've actually managed to finish two short stories to the point of submission in the past month (no word yet one way or another, which is entirely reasonable and understandable), and I conceived, started, and completed 'Velveteen vs. The Isley Crawfish Festival,' which is a totally new setting for me. Super-fun. Not only that, but it's a totally new setting where I have no desire to write a novel. Practically unheard of.

(By the by, there is now a 'velveteen vs.' tag which will index all the Vel stories. Because there are definitely going to be more of them cropping up over the next few months. I stretch my short story muscles! I force cranky superheroes to do things that they don't want to do! I am maybe not such a nice girl.)

I don't think I'll ever be 'a short story writer' in the sense that I naturally think in the format, but I think I can get better at achieving a beginning, middle, and end in under twenty thousand words. And that'll be a nice change.

I'm pleased.
Tags: contemplation, short fiction, writing
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  • 6 comments

scholarinexile

September 3 2008, 02:32:48 UTC 8 years ago

See, my problem is essentially that I tend to produce novellas. 20,000 to 26,000 words is about my norm, and that's fiendishly difficult to market when you're not already known for writing something either longer or shorter.

But enough about me...congratulations! I hope they see print.

seanan_mcguire

September 3 2008, 14:05:00 UTC 8 years ago

True -- novellas are the hardest thing in the world to sell. Alas that our internal settings are so damn difficult to change.