I have a confession to make…
I never thought I was good at writing short stories.
I’m talking more about length than writing prowess. It always seemed like my brain tried to go big and add layers to what should be something short and sweet. So the short story becomes longer and longer and suddenly it’s less a short and more a story and I’m left scratching my head.
Then my accountability partner dared me to write what would become part 1 of the Monstrous Tales series. And I did. I wrote it and it came in at under 10K words (I was aiming for 8-10K, so it hit the bulls eye on the word count). Honestly, I thought that was a fluke. When I set out to write part 2, I had ALL SORTS of hangups about how I wasn’t going to be able to come in within my (self-imposed) word limit.
You know what? I managed to get it done despite myself.
The Wicked Wolf tells the entire story I was setting out to tell and it did it between 8K and 10K words.
Unfortunately, my disbelief in what I’m able to accomplish didn’t end with me hitting the goal I set for myself. Twice. Nope. When I set out to write part 3, I was sure I wasn’t going to be able to tell the whole story and keep it under 10K words.
Ha. Oh, self. Stop with the negative talk.
The Wicked Dragon is at the low end of my 8-10K range, but I still did it.
So, my confession isn’t so much that I thought I wasn’t any good at writing short stories, but rather that I was wrong about myself. With a little planning and the right motivation (proving myself wrong, as the case may be), I can push through those mental roadblocks and do what I need to do.
Take that, self!
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