Book Pilots

Every short story I write is a book pilot, but only for me. I'm not pretending I don't care about what my "audience" (a purely theoretical entity) thinks, but I prefer to jump clean into the cold waters of an idea before I commit myself to testing the waters with a prudent toe.

A short story is, to me, the perfect length. It gets a whole thought to the page with a minimum of active scheming, and is pre-packaged for my attention span. I can keep an entire book in my mind, and have, but it requires almost all of my mental resources, whereas while writing a short story I can operate on about ten percent and then that piece can conveniently serve as a shorthand for the book that follows if I'm pleased with the results.

Furthermore, I can write a short story in three hours. If it sucks, I can then discard it. I can write a book in a month. I do not yet trust myself to discard a book if it sucks, but I do trust my 'editor voice', and it says "David, your books suck."

I hold myself to high standards. There will be no filler in my books, there will be no meaningless scenes. My target is 60,000 words of pure awesome, and for pure awesome you need a good idea and good characters.

My two most likely candidates are "Timpani the Ostrich Rancher" and "Drugs are Legal, People Ain't".

Hey, bonus: a short clip from "Drugs are Legal, People Ain't"

062 - Drugs are Legal, People Ain't 1

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On the magazine front, Ben Godby figured we should call it Flash Fiction Orgy since that's a cool title containing both "orgy" and "flash". The content wouldn't be restricted to Flash Fiction, of course, but it'd be a good medium for what are essentially wordsmith craft samples that are really difficult to sell on their own anyways.

Current Creative total: 2
Writers - 2

As you can see from my placeholder cover art over there (a pastiche of a movie poster, a textbook cover, and some Bad Art), we desperately need an Artist. If you or anyone you know has such skills and want to be involved in a cool project, this is your time. Click on the cover for a direct link to the post page.

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Listen, here's how it's going to be: You're going to leave me alone while I drink myself into a stupor, and then you're going to nurse me back to health and I promise, then, that we will have a long talk about our relationship. Really, lady, is a drunken stupor every once in a while altogether too much to ask?

Is it just my isolation from the joys of middle class American society or is that TV screen way too large? ...I want one.

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250 words? Yes
Project "Untitled"
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Reading - ?

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