Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Comments, people!

People read, but don't talk back

I'm developing a decent readership, but I don't get any comments. I'm starting to feel like I'm just monologuing here! I want to get input back from the people who are interested enough to read my ramblings.

On a different note, relating to my post yesterday, I think I've found a way around the problem I mentioned with my short fiction. The problem isn't so much that I'm having trouble dealing with writing short fiction, it's that I'm having trouble dealing with short characterizations. I need to write a character for a while, get to know him or her, before I feel comfortable writing for that character. But it's hard to develop a character to that point in short fiction.

But I think I've figured a way around that problem. The works I've already done have a LOT of characters, both major and minor. There are also references to a lot of events and history that is only peripheral to the books. So I'm going to take one big event that was only a mention in my novel, something that happened ten years before the book takes place, and then take one character that I know very well and write the story of his place and his role in that event.

Yeah, it's cheating. It's not really something new, it's something that's already been worked out as backstory for another work. But it's something I'm familiar with, and can really sink my teeth into. It's something that I feel comfortable writing. And it's something I'm certain I can do well. It's not really branching out the way I want to, but I think I've decided that I'll branch out in my next novel instead of trying to do it in short stories. At least until I feel more comfortable with the short form works.

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