Shrink It Down

Welcome to the “Write to Publish” course!

The words sounded mellow enough. However, when I first heard I would not be writing one, but two short stories—one which I would have to publish before December—my brain went a bit fuzzy.

I must confess: I’ve never understood writers that say they struggle with writing novels. They say that, after a while, they don’t know where to take their characters or how the word count could possibly grow longer to be considered a proper book.

I struggle with the opposite.

Whatever the story may be, I always have to force myself to stop lest I end up with a never-ending series. It’s challenging to let go and say the end when you and your imaginary friends are having so much fun. Yet, I did—with my novel. It was conflicting, but I eventually found the strength to type those last words. So, excuse me if when the writing course demanded I make new imaginary friends and then part with them in less than a few thousand words, my neurons decided to leave me.

It should also be acknowledged that I am not a fast writer. While I do like to drag stories along for a ridiculous amount of time, a single chapter will usually take me more than a day.

The new character I fell in love with—my baby Donovan—I had to write a beginning, middle, and end for in about three days (I procrastinated and had to write in two) before I sent him off into the horde of other writers to judge.

(Alright, that’s a bit harsh. They quite liked Donavan and his story).

It was me, a laptop, and two days of non-stop typing, deleting, screaming into my clutter of pillows, and replaying the song Supercut by Lorde.

However, the two days—which are now hazy in my mind—did remind me that I could write a short story. I could make a reader love a character as I loved them with only a few thousand words.

That said: look out December. A short story is coming your way.