Short Stories

lizshine74by lizshine74

In On writing.

Like many writers, my first completed works of fiction were short stories. Immediately upon finishing my first short story, I fell in love with the form. Why? Because it allowed me in one sitting to express something vital that needed expressing–in the case of my first story, something about finding purpose in life. It was like a poem, only not a poem, different, more story, while still leaving much for the reader’s mind to ponder. For many years, I wrote only short stories and poetry, knowing that some day I wanted to write something longer, but that for now, I had some vital ideas that I needed to get out, in one sitting. I’m really stretching the truth when I say “in one sitting”. Though the initial story usually comes that way, I’ve been tinkering with one story in particular for fifteen years and others for varying lengths of time. I have a collection of thirteen stories now that I am editing and compiling into a yet unnamed collection (though I have a few possibilities).
I did eventually try my hand at “novels” and that seems to be where I spend a lot of my writing time now.
For the next month or two I’ll be focusing on this story collection, sidetracking to other projects only when I need a diversion, so I’ll probably blog some about the project. I’m also finally going to finish the book The Art of the Short Story, which I’ve read about half of so far.
Last night I tinkered around with what the order of the stories should be and came up with the concept for an opening story. It will be good to “finish” the collection. Though all the stories are fictional, they’re all quite a bit closer to my own experiences as woman and as a human being than the longer works of fiction I have in the works. I feel like I’m tying it all up, you know, so I can put it away and get on to other things for good.

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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.