Monday, April 19, 2010

Strings of stories . . .

Finished a rough draft of my short story, "Unlikely Odds" today, another story in the "One Armed Maiden" group of stories I'm writing. I'm not a big fan of my title for that group of stories, but it is what it is at the moment.

Although it's not one of my current novel projects - The Crystal Sword and True Love's Gifts, I'm trying to write a series of stories that I can sell individually now and hope to string together into a novel later.

I've seen this done before, but I'm not sure how to get each individual piece to stand alone in a polished way without it feeling like a stray chapter. And yet, I want to try it, partly because I know of a few markets for some of those shorter pieces and I'm not ready to commit to any other full length project since I am already swapping between two of them.

This month is The Crystal Sword month, and I think next month will be too. This morning I finished the rough draft of that short story, tonight I hope to get in another 500-1,000 words on The Crystal Sword.

If you have any ideas or examples of how to write a series of short stories that can stand alone or be strung together, please let me know. I need to do some research.

3 comments:

Emily Ann Benedict said...

Hm, I haven't written much short fiction, but I know there is a market for it, especially in some younger genres.

As to a title you like, have you seen angent Rachelle Gardner's article on naming your stories? It's pretty interesting if you get a chance to check it out:
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-title-your-book.html

Tyrean Martinson said...

Thanks Emily! Today is a busy day, but perhaps I can check it out tonight.

Karen Lange said...

Don't have any stellar advice to offer, but if I come across something will let you know. Blessings for your journey:)