Month: November 2019

According to those who apparently know, there are two types of writer. The plotter and the pantser. The plotter works everything out before they sit down and write the first draft. The pantser writes by the seat of their pants, or as I’ve learned, and prefer to say, writes into the dark. I suspect there’s a middle ground – the person who writes into the dark, but in the breaks between writing considers the options, and comes back with a plan for the next session,

I thought about that a lot this evening as I finished the most recent short story in my challenge. The idea was triggered by a tapestry I saw at Heallreaf, and started out as a traditional mystery set in London’s East End.

Except . . .

Fifteen hundred words in, I have a character, in a situation, with a problem, and I have no idea where we’re going. That’s part of the challenge, and absolute fun of writing into the dark. If I don’t know where the story’s going, how can my readers know?

It came together, as I’m learning it always will, although now it’s an Urban Fantasy Mystery!

I read a little while ago that it takes a hundred short stories for you to really get it. I’m at forty-eight stories, I really count as worthwhile, (even I can put creative voice aside and spot the really bad ones!), about halfway there. I’ll let you know what happens as I get closer to the hundred mark.

Stay tuned 🙂

Back in April, I attended one the WMG Mystery Workshops in Las Vegas. I wrote more in that weekend that I did in all of February and March. Around that time Dean Wesley-Smith announced a short story challenge – write and send a short story a week. I thought long and hard about whether to start the challenge because if I was going to do it, I had to mentally commit myself to 52 weeks of stories.

Eventually, as you’ve probably guessed, I signed up. This last weekend marked my 26th completed story. There’ve been a couple of duds in there but the stories range across all genres: mystery, fantasy, science fiction, romance, and two or three that don’t fit into any category.

The last couple of weeks were harder than usual because I was in England for a friend’s round number birthday party, and the tapestry exhibition my sister, Margaret, organized. This is the third Heallreaf Exhibition Margaret has put together, and the first I’ve attended. I don’t know if there’ll be a fourth. Margaret said after the first one, “never again,” and here we are at the third!

It was a conversation with Margaret about weaving techniques that generated a series of fantasy short stories I’ve written with a weaver as the central character. Margaret’s website is here.