As I've progressed in my writing over the years, my style has changed drastically. My writing became longer and more descriptive, as befitting an immersive world and a lengthy story. That creates a problem though, when presented with a challenge with a small word limit. Short stories have to be written differently, in order to be successful. I once thought that writing a novel was such a feat, and my opinion on that hasn't changed. Short stories are a feat of their own though.
Short stories have to begin and complete a story in a mere few thousand words. Characters with little time to develop must evoke the emotions of the readers. Conflict is born and resolved in that time, battles won and lost. Some of the best and most impactful stories I've ever read were sort stories. I have tremendous respect for their potential, and the manner in which such successes are achieved.
Writing a short story is very rewarding, but very difficult to accomplish. One of the challenges is to come up with a story that can be told in the proper amount of time. Another is trying not to fall in love with the characters. This one posed quite a great deal of trouble for me, since I'm now accustomed to writing longer stories. In some cases though, too much focus on the characters can distract readers and authors from the story's plot and purpose.
Short stories are a challenge for me, but not one I'm prepared to back down from. I wrote one before for an earlier contest, but I felt it was too unrefined to enter by that deadline. I thought about reworking it for the challenge I just entered, but I opted to start fresh. Of course, then I faced all of the same challenges again in coming up with a new story. I ended up getting the idea I needed a grand total of three days before it was due. I spent one day conceptualizing, one day writing, and one day hurriedly editing before submission.
I know, my timing was great. I hated that I'd waited so long, but felt proud of my final product. I submitted happily, and then realized I had months to wait to hear back about the results. About that time the exhaustion sunk in and I promptly went to bed. Overall I am very happy about the experience, despite the rush, stress, and sleep deprivation. Writing is just what I'm destined to do. Completing and entering that story gave me such a rush. As corny as it sounds, win or lose, I'm very pleased.
- Hi there, everybody! Here's my post about the writing challenge I told you guys about on social media. I won't give out details about the writing challenge I entered until after the results are out, because it's judged anonymously. Wish me luck!
