An unexpected turn
Gah. I think that my latest short story idea may actually be a novel. No matter how I twist and turn and try to compress I can’t make it fit into a short story format without spending pages telling about backstory. I can’t fill a story with all that telling. Not when taking the time to show would make it all so much more compelling.
But I’m not ready to do a novel. I’m not supposed to be doing novels yet. I have too many other things in my life to give space to a novel. … but I think this story is a novel and it won’t leave me alone. I’ve never written a novel before. I don’t count the ones that I started and never finished when I was in my teens. They were more pretending-on-paper than true novel writing.
I’ve got outlines done for plot and for character arcs. Scenes are starting to form in my head. But the very size of it is daunting. To finish a novel will require so much effort and it will be spread out over a long period of time because I have priorities that come before writing. I’ll probably start with the scenes that are ready to go. Maybe when they’re done some of the inbetween scenes will come to me. That’s the way my friend Janci writes and she’s written five novels so far. I’ve no idea how long this thing will be or how saleable it will be. It may only be a novella. But I have to give it the space it needs to be whatever it will be.
But…but…I was going to write short stories. They were small and nice. I could finish them and move on inside a month. I’ll still write some of them. A novel is so big that it will require breaks.
Sigh. I’m supposed to be refocusing on family and schedule right now. I’m supposed to be planning a family reunion.