I finally did it…

I wrote a short story.

One of my goals this year was to try to write shorter fiction so that I could post a story to my website as a sample of my writing and a way to engage. Or so that I could submit to writing contests or SFF magazines.

Writing short fiction is hard for me.

I often envision a character or two, a scene, a magical component and write it down. But these random ideas are either something that for many reasons would never be published—or I don’t stop writing and it turns into a book!

I wrote two short stories earlier this year, but one turned out like YA romance/memoir and the other felt more paranormal/horror. Turns out third time’s the charm for a SFF short story.

I have always enjoyed fairy tale retellings, so one Sunday I decided to write a very loose retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. (I had recently finished reading a book in a favorite werewolf series so I had wolves on the brain too.)

My favorite retellings are ones that change big details or turn around who are the heroes and villains. With that in mind, I read a few Red Riding Hood versions and got started.

I wrote for several hours that day and when I was finished I had a beginning, a middle, and an end. And I didn’t want to write anything more. Success!

But… it was 6.5k words and research told me that 3-5k is the typical range for contests so I knew I had some work to do to trim it down. I put it aside for a while and just enjoyed the fact that I had written so little. HA!

I debated how to approach the edit. Should I cut out the first few pages entirely (since I seem to always start slowly anyway) and focus on the core action? Or should I read it through again and just trim, trim, trim everywhere possible and then see what that did to wordcount?

In the end, I did a little bit of both. I cut big chunks out of the first couple pages where I had explored the world and set up the main character. Throughout the rest of the story, I pulled out a few paragraphs here and there—since I had written the ending and now knew they were unnecessary!

Version 2 is now sitting at 5.4k and I’m stepping away once again. I want to give it a third edit—because third time’s the charm it seems—and then submit to my writing group for critique.

Whether this story is posted on my website, used as a freebie someday when people sign up for my newsletter (which I plan to create in future), or submitted to contests, I am so pleased to have stretched my writing skills into something new. After several failed attempts, I can write a short story. Hurrah!