I’ve blogged at least once a week for three years running. I’ve written enough essays on the craft of writing fiction to fill a book and enough short stories to fill another one (gee, that gives me an idea).
This week I started an article on how novelists should write with film adaptations in mind. Not to say that every hardcover is destined for the big screen, but that fiction writers could learn a lot from another medium. My angle was that narrative writers should use screenwriting tricks to keep their manuscripts from getting too long.
I got about 500 words in before I realized this was ground I’ve covered before. I was coasting on sayings I use all the time. The last thing I wanted to do was recycle a bunch old of content. I’ve followed too many blogs where each entry gets bogged down by lazy self-plagiarism (yes, that’s a thing).
So I decided to get back on the short fiction train.
I got about 1,800 words into a short story (tentatively titled Newsreelmancer) and I realized I was at the halfway point. Newsreelmancer is my first foray into science fiction in some time and it’s taking a lot longer for the story to resinate with me.
Writing can feel as empty as corporate jargon or as engaging as telepathy. The difference is that feeling of authenticity. In the spirit of finishing what I start I want to keep chipping away at this story for another week, until I find that certain something that makes it feel genuine.
That said, I don’t have any writing advice or short fiction for you this week.
This placeholder post is an I-owe-you slip for one blog entry or short story to be redeemed later. I promise it will be something that comes from a real place, resonates with deeper meaning, and is longer than the length of a comment.
P.S. One piece of advice I have for any aspiring blogger is to have a backlog of evergreen content piled up just in case something like this happens.
P.S.S. Admittedly this is not my finest work, but it does technically count as a blog entry, meaning my three year streak continues unbroken.
I’ve run into a few times where I wanted to make a blog post but didn’t have anything ready. A lot of times I’ll have a behind the scenes book cover post in the wings (I try to write those as soon as I finish a cover), but if I don’t, I’ve gotten into the habit lately of just not posting. But yeah, having extra content ready to go is handy. Have fun with your new short story! 🙂