We’ve had a really interesting week for weather here in Southern California. The joke, of course, is that LA is invariably 72 and sunny. But not this year! This year, we get a sunny day followed by a rainy one. Yesterday morning I went for a dog walk under a magnificent sunrise, and then the rains started about a half-hour after I’d gotten home. I’m not complaining, exactly; I’m just not used to the variety. I’m not used to having to carry around an umbrella.
I’ve resolved to write a short story every week. I miss the pace of productivity we had at Clarion, but of course, we could dedicate our time to writing and reading. I don’t have the same luxury here, but my job allows for some flexibility so I feel I should take more advantage of that. When I was deep in the novel it was hard to think about anything else, but now that I’ve emerged from that cave, I’m ready to flex the short form writing muscles again. The wonderful thing about short stories is you can actually finish a story in a day. It may not be a very good story, granted, but sometimes a finished bad story is better than a good story that never gets done.
I was inspired by reading Douglas Smith’s Playing the Short Fiction Game, a fantastically pragmatic and detailed handbook on how to sell short stories. A key point he emphasizes again and again is that you really have to keep writing, and keep sending stories out. I should not that this is not a craft book; he assumes that you are, naturally, working on your craft; this is a how-to book on the strategy and logistics of selling short stories (leaning heavily on the speculative fiction market, which is a very healthy one.)
So this week, I finished one story, The Girl in the Tower, which is out with my critique group now; and I’ve been playing with another one, The Pilot’s Wife (I’m not a huge fan of that title, but that’s what it’s called for now) that I’ll probably finish tomorrow. This weekend I’m off to the Spring Assembly for some Jane Austen cosplay and dancing!
What about you?