Waiting for my laptop

[cleolinda]

So I came up with another short story idea yesterday while watching TV--it didn't fall on my head quite as fully formed as the one the other day, so I think it could use more time rolling around in my head. The ending's a pretty basic, common twist, so the point of the story--the So What of it, as my first English professor used to say--has got to be what leads up to it. It's got to be the kind of ending that enriches what came before, rather than just (try to) give you a DUN DUN DUNNNN moment. So. I think that's going to take a while to develop.

It's all good, though, because the hardest thing for me is coming up with concepts. I'm much more interested in and work better with character, and could write shorter one-offs about established characters, but when you're writing just a stand-alone short story, you don't really have enough room to get really, really deep into that, so it's more the theme, the So What, that takes precedence. The idea, really. And that's hard for me, to come up with stand-alone concepts. I don't know.

*obligatory whine about cleaning*

Comments

[dachelle.livejournal.com]

I have a really hard time writing short stories. Of course, I write RPS fic, so it might not be "real" writing, but like you I prefer working with characters rather than plots, and I find that I fall so in love with the characters that their story just ends up continuing and continuing and continuing, and I look back and wonder how on earth I got to over 300,000 words based on an idle musing I had three years ago about what the Libertines would be like if they were a boyband. When I do write short stories it's either little vignettes or PWPs. I admire people who can write concise, punchy short stories!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, my problem is, my story ideas turn into ideas for entire novels. Which is great and all, but you're more likely to finish ten short stories than you are ten full novels. Particularly if you have a hard time finishing anything, period. And maybe this is why it's easier for me to spin short stories off novels--little tangents that don't really fit within the narrative--than to try to keep one-offs from getting any bigger.