The Short and Long of It

Introduction

There is only one type of story in the world—your story.

—Ray Bradbury

I have to admit from the moment I picked up my first anthology, Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories by James Thomas, Tom Hazuka, and Denise Thomas, I was hooked, and thoroughly amazed that a writer could tell a full story with such a limited number of words. How was it possible? Thus began my short fiction-writing career. I cut my writing teeth on pieces of 55, 100, 250, 750, and 1,500 words. I took classes in flash fiction, and for four years participated in an online flash fiction workshop where we read, analyzed, and critiqued each other’s work. (A huge thank you here to our wonderful writing instructor Pamelyn Casto, who taught us how to write short and accumulate publishing credits along the way. You’re the greatest!)

If you’re a writer like myself, someone who learned to write short and still does, and who shivers at the thought of attempting anything longer than flash fiction or stories that curl up and end at 2,000 words, then this book is for you. In the beginning, as I forced myself to write longer work, I saw my life pass before me. My epitaph, short and succinct: He died trying to increase his word count. I was paralyzed with fear. I kept telling myself I couldn’t do it. Nope. Never gonna happen.

I was a slow writer to begin with—still am, in fact. While my writer friends merrily wrote and published novels faster than speeding bullets, I was trapped in the short forms. But with the advent of the e-age something happened. While reviewing some of my older work with an eye to reprinting it, I realized many of these earlier pieces might provide blueprints for longer stories. Most had definable beginnings, middles, and ends, and a plotline I could expand upon. Like The Little Engine That Could, my mantra became: I think I can. I think I can. And you know what?

I found out I could.

And so can you.

That’s what this little book is all about.

As you read through the book’s sections and practice the exercises at the end of each chapter, The Short and Long of It will help you stretch your fiction—and your brain—but I also hope you’ll have as much fun in the process as I did in writing this book. So let’s get on with it, shall we?