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The Challenge
Last week I mentioned doing a challenge. To me a challenge is just a glorified chore, yet another thing I have to do on top of everything I’m already doing. I don’t like creating chores for myself… but I will if the chore has multiple benefits that help me accomplish my goals. Such as these:
I want to level up my writing game.
I want to lean into the Rules.
I want to learn to write faster…
and better/cleaner, so I don’t have to spend so much time revising.
I want to practice new techniques.
I want to grow my fiction readership, and
I want to increase cash flow.
And I think I’ve found the right challenge to move the needle on all these things.
Yes, really.
Here it is:
Write a short story every week. And ship it.Yup. That’s the challenge I’d like to do. It’s perfect. I could practice writing something fresh and in-scene every day or at least every week. Lower the pressure by keeping the projects short. Practice pantsing and practice not over revising—and keep that all lower pressure because I have less attachment to short stories than novels. Maybe make a sale from some of those ships. And if so, maybe reach some new readers from those publications. Not to mention all the things short stories can do right here on Substack. It checks all the boxes.
I think doing it for a year is a good goal, but I don’t know… there’s something intriguing about aiming to do it for life.
But if I’m being totally honest, I don’t feel ready to start. Let me count the ways…
(Or you can skip to the plan.)
Hey, Paper, where’s Pen?
If I remember correctly, I’ve written in my life a grand total of two short stories. One when I was in second grade. It was about a cookie. And one at the end of 2023 in response to an anthology’s call for stories. It took me three months to write that one. Not that I worked on it every day. I worked on it for a total of maybe six or eight days (with five to seven of those focused on revising). I sort of saw the call, thought the parameters were something I could work with (in that it immediately sparked an idea), but when I started writing, I didn’t like the idea in execution. Then the next day (literally), I got a better idea. I sat on that for a month or so, then wrote a draft during a Monday night football game.2 Sat on that for a month, then remembered the anthology’s deadline was coming up and started revising. And in the end, the story wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. (Still, I sent it. Go me.) All of which is to say: (Way #1:) I’m not loving my short story process as I currently know it. Not just the big revision effort at the end, but how I come up with ideas (the inspo comes or it doesn’t), and, to a lesser (or do I mean much, much greater?) extent, how I wait so long between writing phases.
So what? you might say. Just do the challenge. Which is what I used to say too. But I’m beginning to realize that (Way #2) I have much better long-term success if I take it slow rather than fast when I’m making lifestyle changes3.4 In fact, the only times I can think of when going all-in worked for me was once back when I trained for a triathlon and another time when I trained for the Nike marathon in San Francisco, and on both occasions I sort of found out about the thing, thought it would be cool, did the math on how long it would take me to train, and in both cases the answer was, You can do it, but you literally have to start tomorrow. For the triathlon I had nothing serious going on in my life5 and I was bored, so that helped me stay committed. For the marathon, going required winning a spot in a lottery and I had to arrange hotel and airfare, so that helped me stay committed. But only for the duration of training. This sort of fitness never became habit for me.6 So, those exceptions aside—and because (Way #3) I don’t have any of these commitment factors present for this challenge anyway—for every other change in my life, (Way #4) I’ve done better when my mantra was something akin to kaizen (which I define, probably incorrectly, as making tiny changes over time that amass big results). Or, in a similar momentum-building vein, swiss cheese.
The Swiss Cheese Process
Swiss cheese is the best procrastination-busting process. You take a piece of paper (I like and have yellow paper, so, you know…) and write all the things you want or have to do on the (yellow) paper, each in their own circle so the paper looks like swiss cheese. Then you do whichever item calls to you and color in the circle when you’re done. It’s not about following an assumed order of steps. It’s about doing whatever’s going to build momentum, the desire, to take more action. So it becomes about doing what you most feel like doing. Which is my favorite way to live.7
So, in my case, if I want to be writing but I then proceed to do nothing particular all day (or for two or three days), then I’ll pull out my piece of (yellow) paper, write down in individual circles whatever step I’m procrastinating on in the project I want to be working on (usually something fiction related) as well as any further steps on the project that I think would come after that. Then I add all the other things that I want or need to get done, which usually includes reading something project related. And then, when the cheese is made, I usually take stock and realize it’s not so much stuff after all, and then I get started by doing the thing that most calls me. Which is usually reading something. Because it’s easiest. But almost without fail, reading the thing (or whatever it is I choose) not only gets me activated to keep going on all the things I want to do, it gives me the fodder I needed to keep going with the thing I wanted to be writing, which is sometimes scene details but is usually just an insight that I need to reframe what I was writing and how to do so. Good stuff. So anyway…
The plan to inspire Pen
Which takes me, finally, to how I feel like approaching this uber beneficial short story challenge. I’m gonna swiss cheese it.
My swiss cheese page includes these challenge-related items:
Read Writing Into the Dark - I could use some guidance on pantsing, which is one of the main reasons why I want to do this challenge: to use my craft differently… and therefore, hopefully, write faster… and, therefore, hopefully, create more books. Writing Into the Dark is by the guy who inspired all this in the first place, so…
Read Creating Short Fiction8 - I could use some guidance on writing short stories. I tend toward plot over character, so slice of life doesn’t come easily to me. Nor do simpler problems that can be resolved in a few scenes. And as I sit here, trying to explain why I need the guidance, I think I’m just reaffirming that I need it, because I feel like I don’t even have enough context to satisfyingly explain why. Needless to say, this book will probably get read first.
Read Playing the Short Game - What do you do with all those short stories? Where do you ship ‘em? Dean Wesley Smith has a great game plan that includes shipping the story to publications, posting them on Amazon as singles, then grouping a bunch into an anthology. Love me some lucrative repurposing. But it’s that shipping-to-publications bit that stumps me. I’ve got a copy of Writer’s Market, but whenever I consult it it always leaves me… let’s just say uninspired. So… Playing the Short Game is on my Wish List. Plus I think the book includes shipping to international markets, which definitely intrigues.
Identify off-stage events from a novel already written that could be turned into short stories. This will use characters I’ve already got so I won’t have to put as much time and work into creating them. And each story idea will already have an ending, and possibly hints of the beginning and middle, so that should cut down on work (and blank page anxiety) too. Doing this should help me ease into the challenge without having to upgrade everything about my process all at once. And I can use these side stories as reader magnets and book promotion… And just like that I’m already more excited about doing this challenge.
So that’s the beginning of my plan for the Short Story Challenge. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted about anything I learn as I read the books.
You might be itching to go forth with the challenge right now. If so, good on you. Maybe I can help you get started, cause I have a couple more things I want to share.
A Short Story Prompt
I was thinking about my woefully reliant-on-inspiration way of coming up with story ideas, and I came up with an idea. (ha!) I’ve got some random story fodder things that I’ve collected over the years, to include: a deck of Caroline Myss archetype cards, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, a deck of Mixed Emotions, a deck of Transforming Dragons, Strange but True, Man, Myth & Magic, I could go on. So I was thinking, how about we poke at that idea problem with a person-place-thing-emotion prompt pulled from my cache of stuff.
Here’s the first one:
Character: I pulled the DETECTIVE card. Light attributes: observation and intuition, a desire to seek out the truth. Shadow attributes: voyerism and falsifying information.
Setting: I flipped blindly and my finger landed on Yogyakarta, in Java, Indonesia. It’s a “flourishing art center” “rich in history” in a “village-cum-city.” Best time of year is April through October, in the dry season.
Object: Bard says a pocket watch, a kaleidoscope, or a hot air balloon.
Emotion: The emotion card I pulled is RECEPTIVE. Open, accepting, welcoming. (But it’s a scene/story, so, you know, still conflict.)
Technique: When I identify new ones, they’ll go here. For now pick your own. Maybe something from the suspense page. (Although, really, managing receptive while still including conflict is probably advanced technique in itself.)
If you’re keen to get started on the challenge, I’m envious. Happy writing. And remember, this is just a prompt: use it whole, use its parts, use the one-off thing it reminded you of, ignore it completely. It’s all good. And if you happen to post your story online and want to leave a link in the comment so others can take a peek, have at it:
The Second Thing
This is getting a little long, and the second thing isn’t actually done (started?) yet, so I think I’ll keep it in the crucible for now. Maybe we’ll get to it next week.
See you then.
Thank you for reading!
I hope your writing goes well this week.
Keep at it,
Megan
WritesWithTools
site: writeswithtools.com
ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/writeswithtools
wishlist: http://tinyurl.com/WWTWishList
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We don’t have an NFL package, so for MNF we head to a restaurant that has TVs and a happy hour ($2 nachos anyone?) and doubles as a rare date. I like that it’s a solid 3.5 hours with decent ambiant noise where chores aren’t calling to me and I can get a good chunk of something done while still catching the highlights on replay, and the table heights are usually great for pen and paper. Yup, I’m that girl. A lucky girl, I realize, since my sig other doesn’t mind that I’m that girl.
Lifestyle changes: they come in more varieties than just diet and exercise.
Case in point: I’ve had the idea for this short story challenge for a few weeks now, thought I would just sit down and do it, so I did, but instead of a short story a week, I’ve written two scenes for a novel and, when that stopped flowing for need of research, nothing else.
I was between educational stints and not into writing yet. I was mostly just working at an office and reading The Stranger which always had ads for free tickets to advance movie screenings that you could pick up at random stores. Do they still offer those?
Unlike my daily walk, which long ago started as a five-minute thing I did for my dog and has now become an hour-long thing, minimum, that I do every day with or without my furry friends.
If a couple things are calling to you, you can flip a coin. Whether you’re relieved or disappointed, you’ll know which one you really prefer. And if nothing is calling you, then the best prioritizing advice I’ve ever read (in The One Thing) is to do the thing that, by doing it, makes all the other tasks easier or even unnecessary.
I have some other short story craft books, but they didn’t do anything for me, whereas I’m excited for this one. The reviews are great. One says it was used as a college course textbook. Love me some curated learning.