blogwithvalor

So yesterday I finished my 15 short story in my 30 short story list. Woohoo! Pats on the back all around.

Originally, I wanted to put out one short a day. Unfortunately, I greatly underestimated my desire to write. Once every story started being over 700 words, I decided it was time to back off that goal. If I can do 1 ever other day then that’ll be nice. I’m an inexperienced and infrequent writer. Learning my limits is part of the process.

One story every other day is still a big ask. Ray Bradbury has been quoted as saying the following:

‘The best hygiene for beginning writers or intermediate writers is to write a hell of a lot of short stories. If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones. Can’t be done. At the end of 30 weeks or 40 weeks or at the end of the year, all of a sudden a story will come that’s just wonderful.’

I get two things out of that.

First is not to worry if you don’t like everything you write. Sometimes it’s best to put it down on paper so it doesn’t stew in your mind anymore. Eventually, you’ll write something that really sets your heart ablaze and now you have the idea down to look at and help grow. Quantity (and practice) create quality. Had to add the practice part, didn’t sound right without it.

Second is that one short a week is a manageable amount for a beginning writer. We shouldn’t try to push ourselves too hard at the beginning. It’s easy to burn out quick or even beat yourself up too much when you can’t reach an unrealistic goal. Stick to an easy and manageable goal.

So one a day, my original goal, was very optimistic. I’ve loosened it and somewhat begrudgingly forgave myself for not accomplishing it. One every other day is still a lot, but I’ve done 15 shorts in 26 days. It’s doable and I’m enjoying it. So I’ll try to keep up the pace until the end.

My ultimate goal is preparing myself to write a novel. It’s based on one of the old short stories I’ve posted. Although some of these new ones have been fun. After I hit this milestone, I can take a look and change my mind.

But no short today. Just a ‘good job me’ post.