Short Story Writers

I'm writing shorts this year. They're only linked by general genre (fantasy and science fiction). Outside that they'll be all over the show, including a few picture book ideas I had.

BlueNinja103 wrote:
For those with the attention span of a three year old, like me.

Oh hai there.

I have the attention span of a squirrel.

I'm doing three short stories and a novella this year. Whoop!

Good luck to all short story scibes out there. It's an art form I can never quite grasp as well as I wish. Alas, I am not Joyce. However, they're damn fun to write.

Same here!

The only thing linking them so far is that they're going to be historical characters, but otherwise, ANYTHING goes :'D

BlueNinja103 wrote:
For those with the attention span of a three year old, like me.

Or those that just like to write shorter stories and cover a wide variety of topics in one big book.

Is there a running theme to your stories, or are they just a random jumble of your brilliant ideas? Need help, opinions from other short story writers, or a cup of a certain virtual caffeinated beverage? Discuss your short stories here!

In 1978 I started writing a series of short stories about a family and their "haunted" house. 33 years and more than 200 short stories and novellas later, that story now spans many generations and branches of the family with stories set in time periods from the 1313 to 2525, and no longer are all the stories set in the same house, or even on the same planet, or heck, several are not even set in a galaxy remotely near by. LOL!

The common thread of the entire series is it focuses on the MC (Etiole Swanzen) and his father's house (The Twighlight Manor) and every one who was ever somehow effected by either the man or his dad's house.

When it comes to writing I'm a pure pantser. Never know what I'm going to write. I only know who my characters are and where they live. Aliens trapped on Earth and living in a giant haunted house named "The Twighlight Manor" in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

The stories are VERY character driven. Heavy on monolouge. My characters do a lot of ranting. A LOT. The pace is fast because it's heavy on the dialouge and light on the descriptions and sort of reads like a comic book script or a play, which stands to reason seeing how I'm better at writing plays (which I also do) than I am at writing novels (which I don't do very often.) I suck at setting descriptions. This results in my stories being in largly comic script or play script format, in other words straight up page after page of dialouge.

Also my spelling sucks too, I have to do massive spell checking after writing.

When I write, I'm all over the place. I may have the end written first for one story, while avoiding the end of another. I'm also known to write 4 or 5 stories simaltaniously. Usually 4 or 5, but I have had over 2 dozen going at once on more than one occassion. I have Autism and OCD so, my mind goes into many branches of organizing and story telling all at once. They range anywhere from only 750 words to as much as 30,000 words, though most of them fall in the 2,000 to 7,500 range.

I usually know HOW each story will end, but not the why, when, or how that ending will come about. For example 9 times out of 10 the story ends with a character death, so I know it'll be the end when said character dies, but when, how, where, or why that character is going to die may not be known until I write it. Tear jerker endings are what I'm known for. Making you love a character in the middle than ripping your heart out in the end when I slaughter them in a gory bloodbath. But don't worry, chances are good they'll come back in a future story as a ghost or zombie or undead science experiment, as that is the nature of the series. ;)

It's a saga, it starts in the 1600's (though has gone back earlier in flashbacks) and goes on into the future, has 75 different MCs depending on the time period, and so I can write pretty much any story from any time setting and make it fit the series, which allows me a lot of leway.

The genres are all over the place, some horror, some sci-fi, some fantasy, some historical, some high seas adventure, so treasure hunting, a lot of romance, but one genre shows up more than the rest and that's Gorn Erotica.

Sci-Fi Gorn is what my stuff is technically called. Gore + Porn = Gorn. It's more Fantasy than anything else, and it's not strictly Erotica as it does have a story to it. Most people know me by my M rated, much hated and heavily banned series of 200+ short story-chapbooks writing since 1978. As a general rule, people who kno my name, AND recognize me as "Hey it's YOU!" know what I write, and so, I've got no problems with the: "Yep, that's me, and that's what I wrote."

People who don't know me, and ask, "So I hear you are a writer, anything I would have read?"

I say: "Probably not, it's pretty obscure"

I don't say what I write unless the conversation moves into: "So what do you write?"

I say:"Sci-Fi"

Usually the responce is, "Oh, I'm not into Sci-Fi, I wouldn't have read your stuff."

But sometimes it: "Oh really! I love sci-fi! Read it all the time! So who are you, what'd you write, maybe I read it!"

I say: "Not likely. It's obscure. It's hard to find. Only a few stores carry my stuff. It's VERY underground, very extreme, very violent, very banned, and M rated."

Usually the conversation ends there and they move on to another topic thinking I'm a freak, which is ok, seeing as I am. ;)

Sometimes it goes on to: "Sounds interesting, so tell me about it, what's it called, what's it about?"

I say:
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"I am the author of 30+ books, 200+ short stories, a few dozen novellas, 2,000+ non-fiction articles, a few comic books, and roughly 2 dozen plays. Most of the fiction evolves around The Twighlight Manor Universe and it's several spin offs. I am also the illustrator of said books and stories. My genre is mixed and changes with my mode, but for the most part is described as: "Dark Satire Sci-Fi Horror Splatter Gorn" and gets shelved under: Humor, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, or Porn depending on who is doing the shelving. Some fans have described it as reading like: "Rocky Horror Picture Show acted out by Monty Python in Space"....uhm...okay, I guess I could agree with that. ...

... The thing which I am most famous for is that I am the creator, author, and illustrator of The Twighlight Manor series, the little loved, much hated, very boycotted, and extremely banned, graphically violent, sex filled, politically incorrect, M rated dark satire sci-fi horror series started in 1978 and spanning 31 years of books, novellas, and short stories, all of which now out of print and very obscure thanks to a series of good old fashion Christian book burnings. Stories of sex crazed faeries, talking cats, eels from space, sadistic mad scientists, human-eating aliens, all living in a house hell bent on eating every one that walks through it's front doors, and the humans who fall prey to them all. Oh yeah and did I mention the main character is a drag queen? ...

... I write The Twighlight Manor series, started in 1978, pretty much about older men (70s+) with lots of underaged girls (under 14) and unless you are a Mormon you probably don't have access to it, see I'm a Mormon and it was only destributed to other Mormons who didn't want other Mormons to know they had a supressed sex fetish. The men usually aren't men either. And it's pretty much got a sex scene on every page that doesn't have a murder scene. Though there are a lot of sex with murder victim scense too. Sex with demons! Sex with Fae! Sex with mermen! Sex with ghosts! Sex with tall, dark, pale, and brooding guys! Sex with Incubus! Sex with scientifically animate dead guys! Sex with shape shifting Phookas! Sex with Fardarrigs! Sex with aliens whom humans mistake for vampires! Sex with serial killers! Lots and lots of creepy, "ARGH he's about to kill me, but no wait he wants to have sex with me first, cool!" type of sex! I write a reoccuring character who has a sex with corpses fetish! Sex with transvestite vampires (YES - I do love Rocky Horror Picture Show thank you)! Gang sex. sex, sex, sex, BDSM, rape, violent sex, and of lots more sex on pretty much every page, but not much human sex going on in the stuff I write. A lot of blood, a lot of gore. Lots of girls die during sex. ...

... It's Sci-Fi Gorn - (gore + porn = horror + erotica, in a sci-fi setting aka alien silver skinned fish/eel men trapped on Earth and living in a haunted house in an old growth pine forest in Maine...whom the humans mistake for vampires) - it is technically dark humor satiar however, and is generally thought of as a political rant against animal abuse and child abuse, by those who can stomach the gore enough to see the story and the comedy behind it. ...

... My fans have dubbed me as "A Renegade Writer" (one not afraid to say whatever the hell I want, not afraid to step on toes, and certainly not afraid to name real people and businesses in my books if I want to start a protest and boycotte against them). Most people can't stomach what I write. ...

... My main character - the silver skinned merman (Etiole Swanzen) - is based on a real person - my best friend who is a drag queen who paints his skin silver and plays a sequined glittering mermaid on stage (now retired, but was on stage in the 1970s when I started writing the series) - it is precisly BECAUSE my silver skinned characters were based on a REAL PERSON that I am so pissed a Steph. Meys. for mocking them and turning them into a gold vampire farsce in her books based on my books. *PISSED* ...

... Needless to say my best friend the drag queen is NOT impressed with her mocking my books either, because she is mocking him and his lifestyle. If it hadn't been for Steph. Meys. getting famous for writing her YA vampire fanfic of it, than you probably would never have heard of it at all. In fact you still probably never heard of it and think Steph Meys was all original when she thought up her glittering characters, and shortened the names of my Swanzen family down to Swan. *phtttfff*""

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By this point, I have ranted in their face for a good 20 minutes, spewing vemon of hatred at copycats and passionatly romantisizing my MCs, and they are now standing there speechless and dumbfounded like I just hit them up side the head with a bag of bricks...their eyes darting the room in search of a quick exit, in order to flee what they now believe to be a raving madwoman. :D (I love to terrify my unaddoring public - it's a hobby of mine, and me having Autism, ADHD, and OCD - does make for one hell of a show as I waunder around the room obsessivly cleaning things while I rant.)


Most people do not make it through an entire story. They tell me it's far too disturbing. They tell me they want sex fetish not torture fetish. They say there is too much agony going on, that they can't take it. The most common responce after reading something I wrote is: "There is something wrong with you, I'm reporting you to my psychiatrist." And they do, and I frequently end up being asked to come into psychs officies to explain to them the reasons I write what I write and to determin if it is safe for me to wander the streets. *sigh*

But yeah, wow, so there you have it, that's me and what I have done every NaNo and every Script Frenzy for a total of 13 contests combined (this is my 8th NaNo), and it's what I do the rest of the year outside of NaNo as well, and it's what I've been doing for the last 33 years, so, you know, no stopping any time soon.

I prefer writing this series as short stories instead of as a novels because it allows me to write an endless story. I mean, it's hard to make a series of novels last 33 years of writing, because novels have to have archs and endings and resolutions, but short stories don't need these things.

People are constantly asking me: "Where do you get your ideas? How the heck did you come up with so many stories all for the same series?" I wrote the answer to that HERE: http://www.squidoo.com/ideas-where it's about 12,000 words long so sit back and read and learn.

Than people want to know "WHY? what could possable possess a person to write something like this?"

My answer? I can't help it. It's like breathing, I can't not do it. Go back to where I said I have OCD...no really, it is medically impossible for me to stop writing, I write on average 12,000 - 15,000 words a day (not during NaNo, I write more than that during NaNo) - No, I'm talking, I write like this every day for over 30 years. Autism and OCD, yes, obsessive writing is a symptom, that's why it's called obsessivle disorder. I write for me and only for me, to hell with my readers, to hell with my editors, to hell with my publishers, but 32 years of publishing this type of writing, my readers, editors, and publishers expect me to throw everything in their faces and write whatever the hell I want in spite of what they tell me, and well, when you are me, you can do that (I don't recommend that to new writers as you'll never get published, but get as famous as me and yeah, than you can do that). But than there are the characters. I truely deeply love these characters. I have to, otherwise I couldn't spend 33 years writing stories about them over and over again! LOL! And the house! I love the house! OMG! The house is so amazing and in 33 years I still have not yet explored all of the Manor's 500+ rooms! Ooooh! I have so much more I can write, what with so many rooms left unexplored! It's like an adventure. That's what it's like writing this series. I mean, I have no idea what is going to happen when I start a new story, I just write and see what comes out and it's always something new, some new advennture I have not yet been on. And with one MC being a globe trotter I get to wrie about parts of the world and galaxey that I'd never get to visitr in real life. It's just utterly amazing! I love it so much! (Being a writer, that is.)

So, that's what I am writing this year, as every year: more stories about The Swanzen Family and their infamous Twighlight Manor. YAY!

And if you got to the end of reading this, by now you understand what I mean when I say I write obsessivly and can't stop - yeah, not even for forum posts can I stop this manic OCD writing habit of mine. :P

I guess I've ended up writing a series of short stories this year --more like vignettes, actually! Yeah, I think it's an attention span thing.
***GLEE SPOILER ALERT A LITTLE WAYS DOWN*** (from the Nov. 15 episode)
My story was going to be about a girl who ended up with an underground advice column. She was going to be snarky and sarcastic--like how I am trying to raise my daughters...(JK...sort of) but then I found her being too nice to these kids--my nurturing mother side was coming out and I wanted her to be wise and really help these kids --the ones who were really in trouble, like wanting to "come out" to their parents, or cutting-- I like some of what I've written about it, but find I am getting bored easily.

Also, I don't always like conflict --or is it suspense? I like writing dialogue when the characters are arguing, so I guess I like conflict --okay, here's an example --sometimes I'll be watching a TV show and when I'm worried that one of characters is going to do something stupid, I have to fast forward it a bit to see whether they have done the stupid thing or not. Once I know for sure, I can then rewind and watch all the stuff that lead up to the stupid thing --or maybe to my relief the stupid thing didn't happen --like when I had to fast forward Glee to make sure that Puck and Idina Menzel did NOT kiss again!!

At the same time, I love suspense --like American Horror Story for instance. I love Stephen King...so I don't know

As a way to boost my word count, I set my Write or Die (www.drwicked.com) to 500 words in 15 minutes. I end up writing little pieces that maaaaaaaybe I could tie into my original novel --though I'm not sure how the one with the giant rabbit who hops into the gynecologist's office and proposes to the ferret disguised as a human female will fit in...

I like the short story contest idea. Do you know of any good ones I could enter some of my work in?

There's nothing wrong with being a little rebellious at times! Or a lot!

Oooh sounds fun! I'm intrigued. :)

BlueNinja103 wrote:
I call my stories C.R.A.P. (Crazy Random Amazing Possibilities)

They're all based on a What If? question. I want to write a story where something really crazy happens, and then move on to another random, crazy event in no particular order. The one similarity they all share is the SF genre, and most are about Time Travel.

I love writing "What If" stories! I do that a lot. I have a file that is full of questions and when I can't think of anything to write that day, I'll randomly grab a question and write the "answer" in how one of my MCs would deal with that situation. I also use THE DARES THREAD for that too...it has resulted in strange things happening in some stories, like last NaNo a character got attacked by a bowl of chocolate pudding, but no one believed him as earlier that day he had been in the middle of the city when a herd of penguins stormed by...LOL! I love the Dares Thread! LOL! It ended up fitting in the story though as I was able to come up with a logical reason why these things were happening to him: someone had drugged his food. So you never can tell what will happen when you through a "What If" question out there and let your characters play with it.

Eep, I live in the U.S. does that mean I'm not eligible for some?

Kaa wrote:
I'm doing a collection of short stories linked by a poem I'm writing ahead of time (and I will dutifully not count it when calculating my word count) of the following form:

A Is for Angel (<----- These are the titles of the individual stories.)
B Is for Bard
C Is for Clowns that Creep Through the Yard

D Is for Dragon
E Is for Egg
F Is for Fangs Sunk Into Your Leg

G Is for Graveside
H Is for Hive
...

And that's as far as I have anything planned out. The rhyme scheme comes from an old Sesame Street bit, and the idea of alphabet stories came from the Alphabet Quartet stories on DailyScienceFiction.com. The plan is to have a variety of science fiction, horror, fantasy, comedy, drama, etc.

That's the PLAN. :)

Wow! I like that! You've given me an idea for doing all my SSNaNos this year so that there's one for each letter of the alphabet. Good thing it's only day 1 of the contest so that I can plot that out and get started on it tomorrow1

Thanks! That was such a great idea!

everything counts :3

but yeah, I think yours "counts" as normal NaNo since the stories are linked

*high fives* Same here! I'm using this as the "Get Shit Done" Month, so I might actually clear some plotbunnies for one of my fandoms :DDDDDD

Answered my own question. From the 'Am I a Rebel?' thread found here:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/nano-rebels/threads/723


"I'm writing a collection of short stories. Am I a rebel?

Probably not. There's no actual rule on this one. We define a novel as "a lengthy work of fiction." However, we the moderators feel that since you find short story collections on the shelves alongside longer works of fiction, if they're related, they count. They need to have some common theme, or linking thread that weaves them together that makes them a single, "lengthy work of fiction." Which leads us to the next:

I'm writing a series of unrelated essays/short stories/vignettes. Am I a rebel?

Probably. Again, there's no official rule on this one, but if you're just combining unrelated work to get the 50k, it's probably not a novel."