Tell me the stories that have left you burning for days.

lizshine74by lizshine74

In On writing.

At first, I couldn’t manage more than a poem, but the poems came so fast I carried a notebook with me everywhere. I wrote my first short story when I was eighteen on a manual type writer bought at Clevinger’s Thrift Shop downtown Aberdeen. Coincidence that I had just finished Still Life With Woodpecker?

So much time has passed since then. I’ve written three first drafts of novels, started a couple more. And yet, here I am, cozying up to the short story again.

What do you think is the essential difference between the a novel and a story? What are your favorite stories?

A short list of stories that have truly moved me?

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood

The Swimmer by John Chever

Corporal and 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 by Richard Brautigan

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

To Build A Fire by Jack London

Tell me the stories that have left you burning for days. Those are the ones I want to read.

Buy my books here. 

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

lizshine74

lizshine74

Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe. She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook. She lives in Olympia, WA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.

One comment

  1. Holly says:

    At some point I always ask a newly important person in my life to read Andre Dubus’s A Father Story. Sometimes we discuss the story, sometimes not, but it’s always shared.

Comments are closed.