I just finished a new short story titled Elijah’s Fear – 5,200 words!
It’s for the Red Skies Press The Sword anthology. I am resisting the urge to send it straight off to the editor. To stave off that urge, I thought I’d post about how happy I am with it here.
I’m sure I’ll hate it tomorrow (I’m writing this on Sunday night, posting it Monday morning). But at this very moment, I love this story.
It’s set in the year 1391 on the Iberian Peninsula, and tells the story of one of Andreas’s ancestors (or should I use Andreas’ – without the customary possessive ‘s’ on the end?). It turned into a bit of a love story, but not too much so…at least I hope. There is a bit of sword play, but not a lot, so I had to fill it in with something. I figured, aren’t all those warriors and knights always kind of after the hand of a fair damsel?
Anyway, I didn’t actually want to write for this particular anthology because I really don’t know anything about swords. I know a little about Japanese style swords and how to actually use one, but not enough to feel comfortable telling a story based solely on or about a sword. But for whatever reason, I got it stuck in my head that it would be good to challenge myself and write a bit of action.
I’ll tell you a non-secret: I suck at action.
Well, my writing sucks in a general way, but it especially sucks when I write anything beyond having my characters walk across a room, and let’s not even talk about fight sequences. That’s just embarrassing. I’ve even had a critique that said I should take a few self-defense classes before I tried to write another fight scene. 😮
I wanted to respond with the fact that I have three years of Aikido behind me, but then that would be embarrassing, too. It’s not like Aikido is the epitome of aggressive martial arts. It’s called the Art of Peace for a reason. 😉
Regardless, this short story is my attempt to break into the manly side of me. Not sure if I did that. If it gets rejected (high chance of that), I’ll post here on my blog, and you all can tell me if I managed to do that.
Oooooh, and NaNoWriMo is almost upon us. Tuesday is looming large, people, and I’m beginning to sweat. Hold on to your hats!
Related articles
- The Five Elements of a Short Story (writerswritedaily.wordpress.com)
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Congrats on completing your short story! I just came across your blog and I look forward to reading your posts (especially the writing tips).
That is an amazing grill in your title photo by the way. 🙂
Ah, I change the header images every day I post, so tomorrow (or whenever I post next) it will be something different. That’s one of the sculptures outside The Crucible (link: http://thecrucible.org/), by the way.