Happy Valentine’s Day! (In two more days.) It is a day of giving lovingly and without expectation. Yeah, right. At least that’s what the greeting cards say.
I have a weekly meeting with some writer buddies on Saturday mornings. I have talked about these guys before. We sit down, talk about nothing particular, and everything important. You know things like: ‘Why fart jokes are funny,’ ‘Ear hair-The evil that lurks,’ ‘What makes cars so awesome.’ We eventually talk about writing or reading as well. I mean otherwise we couldn’t call it a writer-buddy meeting, could we?
I just finished a book by Neil Gaiman, “The Ocean at the End of the Lane.” It was passed down to me by one of my writer buddies, Ray. He has published a few books on his own. I recently read his book, “Carniville.” It is a murder-mystery and a nice read. Gaiman’s book, which is the first of his that I have read, is pretty good. I mean really it is good. It certainly kept my attention with the fantastic writing. Although, I think that the ending is a bit of a flounder. But I think that I understand why it needed to be that way. YMMV. I am looking forward to reading “American Gods.” That is–when I get the chance. I have a few others in the pipeline to knock out first. A whole stack of others.
Just as a little aside. I would like to encourage anyone who is thinking about writing to take a stab at a short form art. Micro, flash, short story fiction is a great exercise. It is also a great loss that we don’t support it as much as we should. Writing compressed stories, like flash, can aid you in getting to the point of a story, yet still pull on the emotions of the reader. Sparse exposition, concise dialog, and direct, to-the-point descriptions make for better writing anyway. I have read quite a few novels that could have used a little more Xacto knife action.
I challenge any of you to write a short fiction story this month. It is the shortest month. Why not dedicate it to the shortest form of fiction writing?
I am a member of the Rome Area Writers and we are doing just that this month. Write a story with less than 1,000 words by March 9th. If you are in town and want to participate we would be glad to have you. Our meetings are open to the public. You can listen to others read their writing and you can read yours if you like.
The March/April edition of Writer’s Digest is focusing on the art of short fiction along with how to market it. Maybe you could use this month to write something and get paid.
Come on. Take a shot. Write something. Come back here and tell us about it.
Psst. Don’t forget the flowers and chocolate for the women in your life. It is after all, Valentine’s day.