Tag Archives: short story

Where do I begin…

January 18, 2010 – 8:13 am

 How do you decide where a story starts?
Stories, short or long, generally are not about characters who are happily living their normal lives. Something unusual is going on; something has upset the status quo (whether the status quo was a miserable life as a slave, or a happy life as a king).
Stories therefore generally start [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Also tagged , , | Comments (12)

Cinderella at the Rock Concert

June 25, 2009 – 9:46 am

Last weekend, at 4th Street Fantasycon, somebody asked me for a post that I did years back on Usenet, on the difference between the way short story writers and novelists might develop the same basic story idea. Here it is:
Basically, short stories require a tight focus and a single, central plot thread; in a novel, [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Also tagged , | Comments (10)