Diverging Markets?
August 16, 2000
7:34 a.m.
So I'm about halfway through the second try at this story. People/characters are driving things, which is good. And I'm having fun. I expect this will be either a long short story or a short novelette, but we'll see. The problem is that while I'm certain of how the story is going to end, I'm not certain what I want the ending to mean to each of the prime movers. So I'm in discovery mode with this part, letting secondary characters talk a bit more than normal just so as I can get a better feel for who they are in my mind. Bottom line, I've probably written 15,000 words on this story now. I've got about 4,000 that I like.   And you came here expecting to see writing was easy? In regard to Caroline's note, yes, I think the markets may have diverged quite a bit more than in the past. By that, I think it's very likely that a majority of the people who read books do not read short fiction. However, I think people who read short fiction still follow their favorite authors into the novel arena. Big honkin' fantasies sell. Fantasy in the short form does not do so well. I don't know why that is, specifically. But I figure it has something to do with depth of setting, the desire for immersive escapism on the part of the reader, and probably the quality of writing in short fantasy. No offense, but it is very hard to write a good fantasy short story. Yes, I think I've done it a time or two. But they require a lot of work. However, fantasy on the bigger picture doesn't seem as daunting. Odd. I don't know if I would have said that before. Maybe I'm wrong. But I'll leave it stand as is for now, and let the thought play out in my mind a bit. Maybe it's that it's so much easier to write a really bad fantasy short story than a really bad science fiction short story. At least if the idea behind the SF tale is good, the story will be interesting, wherein the fantasy world is so saturated that it requires finer storytelling to make a short story stand out. Regardles, I don't think this should change the way you go about deciding what to write. Unless you have a contract that says otherwise, I think you pick what to write by deciding what has you fired up at the moment. I think you run with it. And I think you do your best to have fun and create something you personally like. If you like it, it's a good bet someone else will, too. If you don't like it ... well. You could be right. If you're not having fun with some part of the process, it's not worth it. I'll stand by those words. Have a great day.  Ron, the moving man Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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Moving on the story ... anyone got another title? |
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