Writing Short Stories

Enough about business already! It bores me, because it’s just not that complicated. Simple but hard, it appeals to my battering-ram mind. Yah, yah. Why don’t we chill out? With something complicated but fun: Writing a short story. The allure of the short story is easy to explain. For the reader, it’s a neat chunk of story convenient for reading on the go or in the course of a busy day. For the writer, it’s a great way to get a single concept on the page and get on with life. As a reader, I don’t read all that many books, but I boil through short stories like a boiler that is boiling on...extra boil? What? Leave it, the point is I Like Short Stories, and here’s exactly how I write them when I’m on top of my game (Why did he say boil?) Shut up. 

Step the First: Titles

Yes, I’m using the plural. We aren’t LITERARY (heaven help us), we’re in this for the long haul and we’re going to be writing a passle of stories, sirs and madames. You’re intelligent folk, so you’ve got a big slew of literary and pulp references swirling around in your brain, just combine that with the world around you and come up with five sexy evocative titles. Trust me, you’ll eventually use them all. Or if you don’t Ben Godby will steal them and sell the story that results to a magazine. Everybody wins!

So, here’s the first five titles that pop into my head:

-Beer Anchovia, Titus, and Thou

-The Fake and the False

-Leave Now and The Truth Will Follow

-Moorsian Invasion

-The Knives of Iceland

If your titles aren’t as Sexy as those five at first, don’t worry. I’ve had a lot of practice with titles. And sexy. Still, any title you made up will be evocative for you, and that’s all we need right now. You can always change it after you finish the stories, which is what you’re trying to do, remember? (Close the porns and get back here.) 

Part the Second: Ready Set

Now the fun begins. Create five blank documents in the text editor of your choice. I use FocusWriter because it has a convenient sessions feature so I can hotswap between documents. Name them according to the five titles you just came up with, and put the title at the top. LOOK AWAY FROM THE SCREEN! And do not think about Word Count or how long any of these stories are going to be. They can be any length, cats, so long as they’re Finished. And they will be, later. For now, we’ve got to prepare. Look at your titles and write down the first image that comes to mind in the appropriate document. By ‘image’, I mean Character, Blurb, Setting, Dialogue, Sentence, or Plot. Whatever floats your boat, just write it down as you come up with it. Remember that nobody’s going to see this.

Here’s the five titles with the images I came up with as I did this:

Beer Anchovia, Titus, and Thou

Planetary siege in a desperate war, aboard the requisitioned and hastily repurposed spaceliner Anchovia, a ragtag crew attempt to construct a still and keep their sanity amidst a steadily disintigrating chain of command.

First person?

The Fake and the False

Gentilia Lake, the unfortunately named con artiste, competes with the Grim Ghast for the souls of the gullible people of Lambutan. Can she save them from Hell by giving them heck? 

Leave Now and The Truth Will Follow

Gentilia Lake appears again, amongst the sheeple of Nazawrath. But when a wolf in sheep’s clothing strikes terror in the hearts of the people, she discovers that serial killers are harder to fool than she expected.

Bloody belt.

Moorsian Invasion

The Moors descended on rhinoceros-back, pillaging as they came.

The Knives of Iceland

King Jeoffrey the Ironhearted had yet to complete his submarine the day the water disappeared.

So...so thirsty. But hey, a series!

Part the Third: GO!

That’s really all you need to do. Just keep brainstorming in images until one of the titles grabs you by the balls and forces you to write it, then just sit down and actually write it until it lets go. Clear a space, don’t drink any beer, eschew sugar of all varieties, eat healthy, and just roll into the tappity-tip-tip-tappity-tap-tap until your fingers stop of their own volition. You know where the story is going, and know why you’re leaving if you stand up from the keyboard. If it’s because you’re scared, sit right back down and face the words you’ve brought into the world. They’re looking up at you with their big eyes pleading for FOOD and mommies. Do not leave them to starve in the computer. When they grow up they’ll kick your ass. 

I’d start with the Gentilia Lake story, myself. 

The dank swamp glittered in the rising sun as Gentilia Lake crawled out of it, her hair hanging down in tentacles of slime...

This version of Professional Edition will last until April 6, 2012, updating every Friday. Site design subject to change as I learn by doing. Like what you see? Spot something unprofessional? Feel free to comment!

I'm Not Indie

ot to put too fine a point on it, I’m not an indie writer and I don’t like that adjective. The term ‘indie’ has mindset connotations--whether right or wrong, I don’t care!--that I’m not comfortable with. First is the Malevolent Gatekeeper argument, the thought that a monolithic ‘Traditional’ (or ‘Legacy’ or ‘Old’ or ‘Grandfather’) Publishing is acting as a wall keeping out good writing. Second is the Everybody’s Screwing Writers argument, the thought that ‘Traditional’ Publishing is organized to cheat writers, specifically the self-described indie writer. I reject these two arguments with two simple questions: “What other options were available?” and “Who made you sign the contract?”

Thus, having won the War on Straw and being financially uninterested in further debate, I come to the real questions. “What options are available now?” This question was one of the topics of my 200 Days writing blog, and was fairly answered, as you can see by the many ePublished works I have available. “What am I?” This question has two answers: I’m a writer and a

Bootstrap Publisher

I’m a publisher operating on a start-up budget, and investing any profits back into the business. My only writer is me, and I do all publishing tasks myself. My emphasis is on getting as many stories completed as I can with minimal distraction coming from the publishing side and seeing how sales do with a more robust bookshelf. Projected Endpoint for this phase of business is April 1, 2012.

The third real question, then, is “What will I be?” I’ll be a

Small Publisher

I’ll know I’m a small publisher when I have an actual, sustainable budget to work with, which will allow me to increase the quality of presentation of my bookshelf simultaneously with being able to focus even more on expanding it. As previously indicated in these articles, I’m willing to spend money on specialists if it frees up time for me to make even more money by pursuing my specialty. Here are some specialists that I’d employ.

Transcriptionist

So that I could save tons of time typing in the words I get while I’m wandering around talking into my voice recorder. Whether this ends up being an actual human being or a sufficiently advanced technology, I’m not sure yet. I can set up VLC to transcribe, but it doesn’t work very well. Research is ongoing. It’ll probably turn out to be less time-consuming to just find a human.

Cover Artist

Clearly useful, not too expensive. I want people and/or spaceships and/or dragons and/or romance on my covers, dammit! As a Small Publisher, I’d deploy pro cover art on series first, then work my way through upgrading key individual stories. It’ll pay for itself, and give that extra bonus classy that I like to keep around any of my projects. To justify wearing the business suits with the writer hat.

Copy Editor

Find some non-Creative who loves spelling, descriptivist grammar and chewing on words and let her go for it. I don’t really trust Creatives to find spelling errors anymore. As I’ve become a better writer, I care less and less about text and more and more about ideas. Still, it’s embarrassing to get caught out. 

POD Layout Guy/Interior Artists

Print-On-Demand will be the next big adventure, and I’ll need somebody who knows what the heck she’s doing with print cover art and design. My research thus far suggests that it’ll be affordable, especially considering that an ugly print book blows the bonus classy capital. I’d also like interior art, but that’s just because I love interior art. Presumably my cover artist will know other artists.

Web Page Design Guy

At some point along the non-bootstrapped way, I’ll get a proper website and set up a simple webstore for ePub’d books, just to have that option available. Depending on how complicated that turns out to be, I might get a guy to set it up and show me how to do the maintenance. 

All of those combined would mean I’m churning out stories at the speed of pulp, and presumably making a decent half-living. In all that, though, I’d still be the only writer, until I became a

Medium Publisher

I’d know I’m at this point if other writers were being published under one of my publishing imprints, whatever those evolve to be, churning out material and collaborating on collections. With that much material and complications, I’d need a few more employees.

Graphic Designer

The Cover Artist, POD Layout Guy and Interior Artist Guy, possibly rolling up Web Page Design Guy all in one convenient package. Presumably a company (or several similar companies) with a menu of services, this would reduce the paperwork and e-mail and contract shenanigans I’d have to go through. Whenever I needed something done, I’d shoot them an e-mail with the specifications, and the previous working relationship would keep everything going smoothly. 

Publishing Attorney

Obviously important, so enough said. Paid by the hour when I need to check that nothing stupid is being done.

Editor

A professional, freelance editor or editors. A non-Creative whose focus is on enhancing the voice of the Creatives who employ him. I don’t trust other Creatives with my voice, because they’ve got their own. I trust Creatives to evaluate my ideas. I use the word Editor for brevity, but think of this guy as a dedicated first reader, copy editor, and continuity checker, not as someone with any sort of editorial control over what gets into my bookshelf.

Marketing Guys

Hired by campaign to do whatever the campaign is, whether that be sending it out to review sites, (strictly white-hat) SEO, doing a short-term ad campaign, running a Twitter page or something. I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go. Nothing fancy, just some guys. There’s got to be a use for all those “social media experts” you see hanging around on the street corners. 

At that point I’ll be making a decent full living at writing, which brings us to

The Limit of My Ambition

I suppose next would come Large Publishing and Mega Publishing, my preferred words for ‘Traditional’ Publishing because it emphasizes the only real factors that distinguishes them from ‘Indie’ Publishing: Size and Cash. It will always be with us, so long as bringing together big piles of cash for maximum business efficiency is with us. And so it should. I’m not fighting it, I’m not in competition with it, but I’m also not really interested in that level. Allow me a Grand Vision of my future: 

Decentralized Publishing

All that publisher talk up there has lead me to think that I’m best served forming what is essentially a creative co-op, based around a core group of writers who happen to like the same group of contract creative services employees. Each writer would write what he wanted to write, and the decentralized publisher would contract that team of employees to format it up and then the publisher would put it up online and in print and distribute profits accordingly. Imprints would evolve or die, kept in line and managed by the writers themselves, and the general profit pool would be used to invest in better employees and marketing and the rest of the support staff that Creative pulp writers need to produce a quality product without the necessity of giving up control of their Creativity. I can see this future now, in this Internet Age, it’s just a matter of building the team. I’m not independent, I’m decentralized.

I’m not Indie, I’m Decent.

This version of Professional Edition will last until April 6, 2012, updating every Friday. Site design subject to change as I learn by doing. Like what you see? Spot something unprofessional? Feel free to comment!

Reasons to Drink

ll indications point toward one inescapable conclusion: I’m running out of reasons to drink. I suppose this is a good thing, but it’s sad to lose one of my favorite pastimes by way of lack of boredom. Whiling away an evening wandering around, drinking, thinking, turning on a voice recorder and babbling into the computer to listen to the next day, trying out new beers and more inventive mixed drinks, running out and scouring the area for more supply, crashing parties in progress through sheer charm and force of will. No! No, it’s too much to abandon. I’ll just have to make the time. So, what should I give up...

Post

Sexy Girlfriend

Recently, my life has become more complicated in a good way, by which I mean I have a sexy girlfriend in a drama-free relationship, which situation combines all the good things about a Creative having a girl without all the weird things that Creatives get up to when they have a lame girl. So far I’ve noticed a decided improvement in my mindset, and that’s one more person who can partake of my cooking skills. Feedback is important, people.

Not Pictured

New House

I’m moving into a much better house and I’m using this opportunity to make a few changes to enhance my writing career, the most important of which is abandoning always-on Internet service in favor of an Aircard. This has the twin advantages that I can use it anywhere in the jungle that has cell phone reception and that I would have to log on specially. No longer would demon YouTube bedevil my productivity, because I know me and I won’t stand for waiting for streaming video. So too would the manic checking of social media be banished to the aether, because I’m not dedicated enough to meaningless online interaction to sit through the Aircard login process more than once or twice a day.

Metaphor!

Steady Success

I’ve apparently cobbled together a working business plan out of sheer willpower and massive doses of research. I won’t reveal The Numbers yet since, as previously stated, Money doesn’t exist until it’s in my bank account (and I don’t have most of them in any case), but I’m seeing steady growth. I recently broke the Footprint 30 barrier (that is, at least 30 titles available for sale) and the consensus of qualified research indicates that I should see exponential growth within a couple of months. You’ll hear more about that as I do. This is an open Grand Experiment.

image

Journeyman Mindset

Breaking that barrier is a direct result of my struggles with mindset. Ongoing ruthless experimentation on my own brain has cleared many of the basic blocks out of the way, or, to be more specific, has reassembled the blocks into an assembly line for words instead of a wall. In the same sense as a craftsman will say “I just love working with my hands” because he’s trained his hands to do what he wants them to do, I can say that I love working with my mind because I’ve trained it to work out what I want to think about.

This is an ongoing process, in the same sense as that craftsman might not say “Sure, I can build you a cathedral” but can say with confidence “Sure, I can build you a great-looking house”. At this time, I’ve focused enough to be able to say with confidence that I can write you a great short story, without saying “I can only write you this kind of short story”. I’m still roaming the world of words, trying out new things, poking at craft and genre details, and just playing with words to see how they fit together. Call me a Short Story Journeyman.

Intermission! Creative Siphon: “Death’s Odyssey”

One of the most interesting things I discovered I have to do with my newly organized mind is have some outlets for the unfocused creativity that gets in the way of what I want to focus on. One way is to fill up outline drafts for other stories to keep those plots from distracting from the story I’m writing, but the other, more interesting, way is to run a roleplaying game. I recently started a Spirit of the Century game on the Penny Arcade forums with a bunch of my friends. The main rule, and how it works as a Motivator instead of a Distraction, is that I’m not allowed to update it on any given day until I’ve written a short story (or 4000 words). This also means that the players go crazy pushing the plot ahead by themselves, which makes it an even more fun Creative challenge to tie it all together. It’s been pretty entertaining thus far, and it can only get more entertaining from here as steampunk mingles with cosmic horror into a stew of literary pulp.

So, enough about what I’ve got, what do I need?

Serves you right

Money

The only thing I actively worry about is Money. Whoever said Money can’t buy happiness was right, but only technically. Money can merely enhance happiness that you’ve already earned, provide the stability that is a jumping off point for the quest to happiness, or solve problems with a minimum of wasted time. Time is more valuable than Money which, in short, buys the flexibility I need to be happily free.

So, if somebody asks you: “Do you think David is in this Writing thing for the money?”, you just stamp your foot as hard as you can and say “Hell, yeah!” (I like to stamp my foot before I curse to confuse people). I have two very specific skill sets (1) Writing and (2) Not Living In Developed Nations. I rather enjoy both of them, and a decent income from the former would be incredibly helpful in support of a sustainable latter. Vice versa? Not so much, but I did say “happily free” not “happily stable”.

Monopoly sucks

Friends

Awwww. No, but seriously, I’ve got loads of friends, what I need is a group of 4-6 friends who all live within walking distance who I could play Settlers of Catan with on a regular basis while drinking beer. (Yeah! You thought I orphaned that introduction, didn’t you?)

I guess I don’t have to give anything up in pursuit of the Good Life, I just need to graft a few more things on while writing. So, friends: Come live near me. And bring money.

This version of Professional Edition will last until April 6, 2012, updating every Friday. Site design subject to change as I learn by doing. Like what you see? Spot something unprofessional? Feel free to comment!