Post #171 May 27, 2019

“Downloads and Short Stories”

I just updated my download statistics for the last week.  The numbers look like this:

Tales of the Quantum Corps = 7330

The Farpool Stories = 4129

Quantum Troopers = 13,091

Time Jumpers = 489

Total downloads since I went online in 2014 = 28,036.  Last week’s downloads = 833.  In 2019, my downloads are 9446, averaging about 68 per day.  So the numbers are looking pretty good.  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I’ve set everything to free but I am trying to build a readership base.

Lately, I have been using some spare time between Time Jumpers episodes to work on my short story craft.  I have one sf short story out being circulated around now (it has several rejections already) and I started another sf short story this week.  I’m always struck by how hard it is for me to do short stories.  My abilities seem better suited to longer forms.

I’m learning a lot though.  I’ve learned that a good short story is really focused on one incident and just a few characters.  You have to make every word count.  There’s no room or time to go off on different plot lines.  Short stories are about focus and concentrating on a small slice of life. 

Wikipedia has this to say about short stories:

A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a "single effect" or mood, however there are many exceptions to this.
A dictionary definition is "an invented prose narrative shorter than a novel usually dealing with a few characters and aiming at unity of effect and often concentrating on the creation of mood rather than plot."^[1]
The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella (a shorter novel), authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques.

I have found that I often prepare and outline short stories pretty much the way I do for novels, and therein may be the problem.  I’m a diligent outliner because I like to know where I’m going in a story (or supposed to be going) before I sit down to type.  Maybe I should just start writing and craft the story in the editing and re-writing process.  But that’s not really me.

Every word has to count in a short story so I feel it’s actually good discipline to keep at this.  Plus it would be nice to see my name in a print publication. 

Another factor is that you don’t normally invest nearly as much time and effort in a short story as a novel.  If it just doesn’t work out, then you have lost that much.  That’s happened to me as well.

I’ll let you in on what I learn as I go about this new tack.  I’m still predominantly a novel writer and the Time Jumpers episodes are actually in between, novella-length stories.  The nice thing about science fiction is that there are markets and readers for all lengths.

Next week’s post will come on June 3, 2019. 

Hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day weekend. 

See you then.

Phil B.