I've finished a short story. It's not terribly short; actually, I think it runs to about 25 pages. This is a terrible length for a story. I had hoped it might run to 50, so I could call it a novella and throw it in with a few other things of that length... but then, I'd have to write the few other things, too. 25 pages is much too long to be a short story, though. I'm not sure what to do with it.
It's a rather weird story. I'm not sure where it came from, which makes it that much harder to decide what to do with it. I'll probably do nothing with it, apart from backing it up and putting it in my "Finished Works" folder (I like that folder). I have a lot of trouble with the short story form, which is why I tried to write one. And so you can see why I have a lot of trouble with it... I think I'll try again, though I'm not precisely sure what to write about.
I have today off from work. There are four SWOs right now, and one of them hasn't worked a shift since Sunday, since he is supposed to head downrange ("downrange" is a word that means "anyplace else in our area of operations that has less hospitable accomodations") next week. He's been bored, and I was supposed to go some "Welcome To This Location" briefing today, so he agreed to work my shift. Then the briefing got moved to Saturday. And he said he'd gladly work both days, since he's bored out of his mind. I can imagine; you can only work out so much in one day, and there's not a whole lot else to do apart from wait for 7 pm move and drink your three beers at the cantina. Well, not unless you have a book you're working on. Thank God I have a good hobby.
Next Wednesday there's a trip to the cheetah refuge that I'm hoping to go on. There's a trip this Sunday to some little island not far from here where you can go snorkeling, but I'm going to have to pass on that; three days off in four is a little much. I'll definitely look forward to that in Septmeber, though.
That's about all there is to say right now. I was going to close with a picture I took today from the door of my tent; it's incredibly scenic and beautiful and you deserve to have it brighten your day. Unfortunately I can't get the thing to upload. I'll try again another day.
3 comments:
Cheetahs! Neat--take pictures if you get to go. =)
here's a bit of useful knowledge for the day.
in literary circles, there is some debate about what length constitutes an anecdote, a tale, a short story, a novella/novelette, and a novel. although the legendary m.h. abrams does not specify word limits in his glossary of literary terms (6th ed.), the bedford glossary of critical and literary terms provides the following guidelines:
anecdote: 499 words or less
short short story: 500 to 2,000 words
short story: 2,000 to 11,999
long short story (novella): 12,000 to 15,000
novel: > 15,000
tale and short story are differentiated less by length than by a tale's focus on actions and a short story's focus on character.
glad to hear the writing is going well these days. unfortunately, i have not been nearly as productive, as my neglected blog reveals. sounds like you're enjoying where you are, and god knows, there's nothing like a change of scenery to inspire. cheers!
useless knowledge, i meant.
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