When I begin writing a novel, I try to plan out to the exact day when I will be finished with it.
When I started the one I am writing now, I predicted April 22 as my "the end" date. Looks like I may make it.
This weekend, I finished writing the short story I'm submitting for an anthology that will be simultaneously published in the UK and the US. I'm happy they had such a generous word range for the story length (from 6,500 - 13,000 words -- a nice, long, short story).
They got my name wrong on my contract, though, so I have to wait for them to re-send my contract before I can submit, otherwise the copyright to my work might be under another author's name... and we wouldn't want that, now, would we?
Whereas I formerly thought writing short stories was no fun, I am now of the mind that I enjoy contributing to anthologies, and have already talked to others about putting together more in the future.
7 comments:
How does one misspell Andrew [MN] Smith? Like, for real.
If money did actually grow on trees that species would've been extinct ages ago.
I love short stories and one-act plays. Chekhov gets me through many a train ride.
As a former language arts textbook editor, I can assure you that anthologies of short stories are vital for teachers in the classroom. Especially ones written for boys, who may be turned off to novels due to the length. (I hope yours has lots and lots of metaphors and similes and alliteration and assonance and themes and biographical, if not historical, criticism elements and all the other hoops kids have to leap through.) School textbooks, however, are vetted by fundamentalist sharks, whose list of vocabulary words come from "Ozzie and Harriet" scripts.
So, Andrew, I believe teachers will have to pass your short stories to the kids in plain brown paper wrappers. Which will make them all the more tantalizing. (Ah, this reminds me: In early honor of April, the poetry month, for today's comment, check out Frank O'Hara's "Ave Maria.")
Oh, Anne. I hesitate to admit that there are far better things than f-bombs and on-camera sex scenes in my short story, and they will ninja their way past the cyclops at the gate, too.
You're a machine.
Why I didn't last as a textbook editor:
http://www.frankohara.org/writing.html#ave
Ahhh... amazing. Thank you, Anne.
Matthew:
Everything happens while we wait for something else.
I don't know Andrew. I can't fathom working as hard as you do writing books as fast as you do. Maybe if I didn't have a 50 hour a week soul-sucking day job I would feel differently, but I'm not sure.
I think some people were just meant to do certain things. I think it's quite clear you've found out what yours is.
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