A writing mentor of mine has given me the gift of knowledge. And that knowledge is the fact that e-book publishers accept short fiction. I never knew this!
My sleeping beauty retelling, "The Sevenfold Spell," is long. I have always tried to keep it under 8000 words, because that is typically the maximum short story length, but in truth, it has tried very hard to be longer. It's also somewhat racy. Not really racy; just somewhat. I don't normally write racy stuff, but when the story insists on being racy, then I, as the mere writer, cannot fight it. It's racy in a rather sad and tragic way.
But the fact that it was racy limited my markets. Very few short fiction magazines will take short stories that aren't teen friendly.
And now my friend tells me that e-book publishers routinely publish novellas as short as 10,000 words. I checked around with some of them--like Samhain--and she is absolutely correct.
So I've been on a writing tear. My 7000-odd word short story is now over 10,000 words, and I thought of several great subplots that need to be in there, which should increase the word count by at least 5000 words. I thought of a great way to change the ending that made me throw my head back and laugh. Better yet, it enables me to bring the story full circle, which is always a plus.
I love it when I get to unleash the true story.
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I love when stories come full circle. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI do too. It's a writing technique taught to me by Sandra McDonald, who is a local writer.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I remember thinking when I read that story that there were so many possibilities for expansion into a longer piece. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, especially the princess herself. Who is now in the entire story, not just in the ending.
ReplyDeleteOh! And I've been thinking about "Petroleum Sunset" as well. I woke up with a much better opening and dashed to my computer to write it.
ReplyDeleteOh good. This sounds promising. I'm glad your writing is working out again. {Smile}
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