Bigger fish.

So, working the fifth module this week, I’m reading and practicing short story techniques. I learned a lot, actually. I have to write a short story for this week’s assignment, 300 words for the length. I’m sure I’ll do alright on it, I have some good ideas. I’m trying to stay away from fantasy, try to make up something creative and original.

As the title says, I do have bigger fish I’m working on at the moment. A contest on WritingDotCom opened up, and it’s for a novella. Now, a novella is a story that is longer than a short story, but shorter than a full novel. The requirements are a minimum of 20k words, and a maximum of 35k words. When I first started writing, I pumped out 60k words pretty quickly. Admittedly, they were trash, but it was the halfway point of my baby novel. Now that I’ve learned and adjusted to actually having a style, I can apply all my practice to a respectable length. I’m pretty excited about it. I’m even going sci-fi with it, although it could be argued that there’s a bit of mythology thrown in there, to appease my fantasy inclination. It’s a wonderful concept, and I can’t wait to show the world.

In other news, I’ve submitted my most recent short story, Crux of Madness, to some magazines. The first one was Clarkesworld, and they responded rather quickly with a big fat no. I wasn’t expecting them to accept it, but it’s officially my first denial and it took some getting used to. I’ve submitted to another popular site, although I won’t mention the name yet, as I’m not sure it’s allowed. I would love for others to read this story, as I think it’s pretty dang good, but I can’t have it displayed publically. I’m sure if it’s accepted and I find out what’s allowed, I’ll advertise the snot outta it, with much gusto.

Once I feel that novella is successful, and perhaps after this Crux submission is figured out, I just may tackle the novel again. I’ve kept the gist of the story the same, but I’ve incorporated a much needed magic system. The poor story was so bland and naive before, and now that I’ve created a real problem, real motivations, and some dynamics to an already good story, it’ll be pretty cool. I’m hoping the world will think so too.

Okay, back to writing, and here’s to bigger fish!

Oren