Things change. This immutable law of life is well known, but I’m surprised to see not just a change in my life, but a complete 180.
In my earlier days of writing, from youth to as recently as when this blog was still new(ish) I’ve struggled with short stories. I posted about my issue all the way back in 2012 (read the post) and one of my most hilarious tales of struggling to keep it short is in my bio, where I boast about “teaching my ninth grade English teacher the importance of setting word limits for short story assignments by handing in a 27 page novella” (as a side note, he loved it, said he barely noticed the time passing (he’d intended to only read a few pages and stop to show me where an appropriate length story would finish), and I got full marks).
Anyway, the point is I used to struggle with short fiction, I preferred to work on novel ideas. Now, all my published work (both traditionally published and self published) is short stories, and the bulk of what’s on my computer is short stories. If you count novellas as ‘short fiction’ then word for word I’ve written a larger amount of work in short fiction than in novels.
To me that seems so crazy. To the me of four years ago – she’s probably laughing at you for suggesting it (then asking for a ride in your time machine).
Have you made a major turn around in your life? Something you used to hate or have a lot of trouble with is now your preference?
True story: one time in English class, I asked the teacher if I could hand in my current WIP instead of the assignment. The assignment would have only been 1000 words or so. I got to hand in 8000 instead. People were impressed.
The times they have changed. I did that in like 2 weeks. I’m lucky to get 1000 in a month these days.
Daniel recently posted..Book 3
Yeah, but in high school you have so much more free time than once you’re out of it. Or at least that was my experience ;p I sometimes wonder where I’d been now if I’d applied myself like I have these last few years back then.