One of the most difficult challenges in writing for the Cafe is to come up with a monthly piece of short fiction. A thousand words with a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is a writing skill I\u2019ve wanted to gain, and I figured with the same discipline, work, and a lot of words on the page I\u2019d figure out this short story stuff the same way I figured out how to win Nanowrimo every year I\u2019ve participated.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it works. I\u2019ve produced some pieces, published here at the Cafe, that I\u2019m rather proud of. It wasn\u2019t exactly easy, but I got in the zone, found a groove, and mixed metaphors like a boss and within a few hours I had something worth sharing with the world.<\/p>\n
But usually I got nothing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve tried starting with prompts, with themes, with characters and situations and conflicts and a firm deadline. I can brainstorm, free write, take long walks and showers, make tripartate lists describing everything I can think of. But I can rarely find a character, a goal, obstacles to overcome, and a solution that fit within a thousand words. Mostly I can\u2019t find an easy source of conflict, and if I try to force one for the sake of the story, it breaks the logic of the world. And, to misquote Elizabeth Bennett, I am unwilling to speak unless I expect to say something that will amaze the entire room.<\/p>\n
I have always told myself private stories to stave off boredom. But I realize all those stories have been at least novel-length. The characters aren\u2019t dealing with short-term crises, they\u2019re dealing with the problem of finding meaning within a life that can, in some circumstances, span centuries.<\/p>\n
Perhaps this reflects my own life, one I\u2019ve managed to constructed to be remarkably free of drama. While some might bemoan my lack of passionate affairs, there also aren\u2019t any fights, misunderstandings, abuse, or many sudden and traumatic losses. My life is pretty placid; possibly even boring, and I like it that way. Drama, to me, is a distraction.<\/p>\n
This perhaps explains why I’m not a big fan of chick-lit and romance. If everybody in those books would use their words and take one another seriously, well, the book would be a lot shorter.<\/p>\n
I guess that\u2019s what they mean when they say to write what you know. Write your own journey. It\u2019ll take as many words as it takes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most difficult challenges in writing for the Cafe is to come up with a monthly piece of short fiction. A thousand words with a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is a writing skill I\u2019ve wanted to gain, and I figured with the same discipline, work, and a lot of words […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}