Escape to Short Story Land

I have come to a final decision.

Having spent over 10 years, excluding the formative years before where the ideas were swirling within my confused mind as nothing but random, unconnected ideas, I have got nowhere with my first novel. That is not entirely accurate. I have managed to mould it into a coherent narrative spread over 2 books with solid characters that live and breathe within me on a daily basis, and if I had the time I would be able to compose the chapters that I have typed up summaries for in the nearly completed story summary. The skeleton is there, the backbone, the themes and aims and the arcs, but I just don’t have the time or energy, and it seems the money, to justify devoting any more of my precious time and dwindling resources to working on my first novel, let alone the other 2 novels that have been steadily brewing within my psyche for the last few years.

I have therefore decided to take the advice of my friends and focus on short stories. I will distil the very core of the ideas from my novels and pillage the characters for traits and dialogue as I endeavour to shape a few coherent, exciting, stimulating and interesting short stories. I always fial to compose a short story because all the ideas that begin as a few characters in one scene end up taking a life of their own and creating the basis of a novel. I need to find the strength and focus to keep them suppressed and within the framework of a tight, minimalist plot line. That is much harder for me to do than it seems.

As I take the first real steps on my journey into the world of short stories it makes sense to me to abandon the idea of continuing to read novels on my ever expanding reading list and to instead focus on reading short stories. I have not actually read many short stories and when I come to think of it, given the lack of time and resources at my disposal, it makes perfect sense not only to compose short stories but also to read them, instead of lengthy novels that require you to lose yourself for hours in their intricately woven worlds.

All I need now is to procure as many fascinating and stimulating short stories as I can, without spending a single penny, as I am financially broke.

The first task is to create a reading list of short stories that will not only be fun to read but also a useful guide in my own journey as an aspiring author. The internet, friends and the local library should be good starting points. That also means i need to find time to visit my local library and actually become a member. I just hope they have a decent selection of short stories by the likes of Philip K Dick, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jorge Luis Borges. If not I will have to hope my sister has copies or that some of my friends will be kind enough to share their collections of short stories with me as I dive head on into the world of condensed prose.

I have always struggled to express myself and my ideas in a concise and succinct manner and I hope this new journey will teach me some valuable lessons, not just in authoring short stories, but in how to communicate more efficiently in the wider world, be it real or virtual.

Now I must set sail and start ion that reading list. www.librarything.com here I come!