Getting back to 100-word drabbles, here are three of mine that all were published a decade ago. Sadly, the venue that published them, SpeckLit, ceased functioning sometime in 2018. I’m forever grateful to Alex Fayle and his crew for being my first paid market.
Writers and authors tend to read a lot, I’ve been slowing down lately. But here are some of the books that I’ve read or re-read recently and would recommend.
This is the first half of a scene in a story I’m developing. I know, that description sounds vague as all get-out. Sorry, I like it that way.
As part of a writing course I was recently taking, we were asked to develop some character profiles. this is the profile I developed for one of the antagonist.
As part of a writing course I was recently taking, we were asked to develop some character profiles.
One of the interesting weeks we had in my writing course was where we had to deconstruct then rebuild a famous story, in this case, Frankenstein. I decided early on that my version would have Elizabeth Lavenza (Victor von Frankenstein’s fiancé) as the hero, and that the story would involve nanotechnology.
Writing is often filled with tropes – preconceived ideas that both the writer and the reader bring to the story. For this assignment we were asked to redefine a fairy tale trope of our choice. I chose trolls.
For a creative writing class, I was taking, we had to write a 500-word scene from The Catcher in the Rye demonstrating a specific perspective of our choice. I chose to do third person limited from D.B.’s perspective.
I want to explain about extraneous plot, and how I’m trimming a big chunk out of the last third of a novel to make the story flow better. There’s also consequences to the characters by doing it.
My first actual paid stories were six 100-word stories (often called “drabbles”) in 2016. I was paid US$5 for each. It was a big shot of validation early in my career.
