The Lifewriting™ approach to your writing career demandsrelatively high creative output. It isn’t designed to coddle people who nursesingle story for years before sending it out.

But students often protest that they simply don’t come up with many good ideas, and thatideas they do generate are appropriate for novels.

In my opinion, basic ideas have no intrinsic length. The TREATMENT ofidea hasintrinsic length. The Civil War can be treated inone-page story, on inlibrary of books. It all depends onskill and intent ofwriter.

Let me tell youstory:

When I was in college, I knewwoman who wanted to bewriter. She told me that she was working onshort story, and I said “great.” A few weeks later, I asked her howstory was going. She said “It’s gettinglittle long—I think it’snovella.”

“Great!” I said.

A couple of months later, I asked her hownovella was going. “Well, it’s gettinglittle long, I think it’snovel!”

“Wow!” I said, althoughwarning bell was tinkling atback of my mind. A couple of years later, I asked her hownovel was going.

“Well, it seems to be turning intotrilogy,” she said.

Hmm. I made optimistic sounds, and left it at that.

A decade later, I was traveling onEast Coast, and knew I’d be passingtown where this lady lived. My wife and I stopped in to visit. Just because I havemasochistic streak, I asked howtrilogy was going.

There waspause. Then, sheepishly she said, “I got tired of it, and put it away. But justcouple of months ago I started working onnew story. It’s good! But” she said, as I knew she would, “it seems to be gettinglittle long…”

That is so sad. My friend had encountered one ofstealthiest forms of writer’s block: to be able to write, but not be able to finish and submit. It servessame purpose toinsecure subconscious: it prevents you from suffering rejection.

After all,idea is so bright and appealing when it enters your mind! The process of actually slogging your way through multiple drafts can bejoy-killer.

Short stories areperfect means to combat this. A short piece employs allsame basic tools that will be used innovel, withcrucial difference. Intime it takes you to writehundred thousand word novel, you can write twenty to forty short stories, and you’ll learn vastly more about your craft inprocess.

Also, because you are going throughcomplete arc of generating story, planning, researching, writing rough draft, polishing, and submitting, you find out where your technical and psychological weaknesses lie.

And yet another advantage: if you writestoryweek, or every other week, you don’t need to cling desperately toidea, thinking it isonly good idea you’ll ever have.

But how to generate ideas? Here are some suggestions:

one) Keepdream diary. A little digital or tape recorder atbedside works great for this. Just tell yourself before sleep that you will briefly awaken afterdream and dictateessence. Inmorning, transcribe.

two) Searchnewspaper. Makeexercise of looking throughvarious sections ofpaper, looking for odd or interesting stories. Imagine how it would be to bepeople caught up in these situations. What story would captureessence of their lives?

three) Read books and watch movies. Imagine graftingend of one film tobeginning of another. Whenbook falls apart, come up withbetter ending—and write it.

four) Create modern versions of favorite old fairy tales. Have fun with this—remember, it’s just practice!

five) Atnext family reunion or gathering, getold folks to talk about their youthful days.

six) Go toplayground and watch children playing. Really noticepower games,sharing,crying,laughter,struggles and triumphs. Every single child, every day, hasstory to tell.

seven) Mine your own life. Learning to walk, to talk, to drive, to win, to lose. Your first fight, your first kiss, your first job,first time you got fired.

There is really no end topossibility. All you need isbelief in your goals, andrecognition that any individual story is juststep alongway—not some soul-searing win-or-lose proposition.

Have fun!

This article was posted on December zerosix, twozerozerofive