The Truth and Nothing but the Truth

Okay, here's the truth. I've been busy working on a short story. It's been a bear keeping the story tight, concise, and flowing. I've been so buried in that and rewriting other works that I haven't taken the time to blog. I know, I know...bad blogger, bad blogger. I considered putting myself in time out, but that would just keep me away longer.

Several people I know are gearing up for Nano. How can I write fifty thousand words when I'm trying to get these five thousand words to work and flow? Who would have thought it would be this hard. Well, actally I did. I went into this thinking that it would make  my writing tighter, and it is. But figuring out changing scenes with a smooth transition and very few words has got me stumped.

So if anyone has an idea or suggestion, I would gladly hear it.

Okay, So I'm a Little Slow

Yep, it took me this long to think about writing something other than novel length pieces. Today I've been online finding a list of publications that work exclusively with flash fiction. I have a new inspiration!

Imagine, writing something that could get published that doesn't have the length of commitment of a novel. But there's a caveat, there's always a caveat. Writing shorter pieces means that my writing has to be tighter than tight and come up with a beginning, middle, and end in a very few pages.

Actually, come to think of it, doing this will, more than likely, improve my writing. What an idea. Doing something that will make me a better writer! Okay, I'm being sarastic, but I'm really jazzed. Now I have all kinds of ideas buzzing around in my head. I can't wait to get started.

Have you ever thought about writing short stories, short-shorts, or flash fiction?

We Know What We Want

How often have we been told by editors and agents in conferences,  workshops, and seminars "We know what we're looking for but it's not something we can easily tell you. We can only say that we will know it when we see it"? Too often, but I get it.

No one knows what will sell or what will take off and be the next big hit. How do you gauge what the market will do? There are ways to estimate, extrapolate, or guess what people are looking for, but it's all a crapshoot. In addition to that, the unpredictability of adolescence blows it all out of the water. So I get it when they give the non-answer. It just makes things a little more difficult.

So what started this whole rant of mine? I was playing with my grandson. We were listening to one of his CD's and a song by the Backyardigans struck me as the perfect description of this process. The song comes form The Legend of the Volcano Sisters. The first lines are: We know what we want. We know what we don't want, so give us what we want. Then the Luau Brothers ask the Volcano Sisters what they want, to which they respond, We Won't tell. The song continues with the same questions and the same response.

I had to laugh, it was the perfect depiction of the process. I don't know how many of you have small children or are familiar with this program, but I suggest that you  give it a listen. Great fun!