My Writing Fiction Update: 8/9

I finally made the plunge and began writing fiction as a regular activity (though not yet to the degree that I want to). I started slow and made a goal of writing at least one short story or one chapter-length part of a larger story each weekend. Starting two weeks ago, I’ve kept up with this goal, successfully writing two short stories (titled Capper and Two Homes). I’ve revised the former to a great degree while keeping the original version on file. The latter has some flaws that I need to resolve as well. But I did it! Are these two stories worthy of being published and paid for? Probably not in their current state, but with a little tender loving refinement I may, at some time in the future, send them off to a publisher to see what happens. In the meantime, I have some more fiction to concoct this weekend.

Writing a story is a completely different process from putting down my opinions on a blog. When blogging, all I need to do is dip into my memory and beliefs (or some external source like a newspaper or TV), drawing up enough material to “splash” on a page. With fiction, I’m still drawing on resources, both internal and external, but I also have to create a different world, populated by make-believe people, that the reader can imagine as being real. The story needs to reveal a progression of events with a consistency and continuity that makes it seem believable. I also must decide to what degree I will use descriptive language for the story’s settings and characters.

Writing fiction requires me (at this stage, at least) to get myself more into a setting where I can focus more completely on the task at hand and not suffer distractions. Also, a part of me seems to be telling myself that it’s somehow “not good” to be engaging in fantasies and thinking up make-believe stories. While this “Walter Mitty” tendency of mine to daydream has done me disservice through much of my life, though, writing stories is one place that I should welcome it!