I began a new short story yesterday. It started as a warmup for a day of writing, but a few hours later I was still within it, toiling away. I think this was a trick I played on myself. I’ve already resolved to write short stories this year, though yesterday was not the day I planned to start. So why was it the thing I started with? Probably because it’s the thing I should be writing.
I miss short fiction. It’s actually where I started writing, years ago, when I was in school at Northeastern. I wrote three short stories for a writing workshop. One of them — the first one — won an award from the English Department. I haven’t taken a writing class since then, and I turned to writing novel-length work soon after, but the allure of short stories never faded.
I met Brandon on Twitter. He’s a fantastic writer. I’m not sure when he first showed up on my radar, but I think it was a thread he wrote to the tune of “She Doesn’t Have the Range,” but with literary icons. I didn’t know half of jokes, but it was alarmingly funny anyways. Then I read some of his work (check him out). He’s had a fan in me since. The same thing happened with my friend Marlena, who I sometimes found myself sitting across from in coffee shops last year as we both worked on our writing. Marlena showed me how to submit work to magazines, and sent me the stories that were published as a result of her effort. The transaction amazed me. Marlena’s stories amazed me, too.
I credit Brandon and Marlena with reinvigorating my love for short fiction.
The story I’m working on right now is only a few pages long (and after some time away from it I know that I’ll be throwing those pages out with the exception of a few sentences), but I’m already over-excited about it. Probably this is because it symbolizes my re-entry into the atmosphere of short fiction, but also because the themes in it are new to my writing, though long-cherished personally. This means I have no idea how it’ll come out.
I should probably get to work. Blogging was my warmup today. I didn’t want to accidentally start another short story, so.