Dragon - a short story

[miriam_e]

Trying to map out a larger story and not doing so well, I tried freeing up my mind by popping out a short story on an entirely different topic. I'm quite happy with it. I hope you enjoy it. It's very short -- only a few pages.
http://miriam-english.org/stories/short-stories/Dragon/Dragon.html

One of the things I always admired about Alice Sheldon (she usually wrote as James Tiptree Jr) was her genius for writing short stories. It always saddened me that she seemed unable to apply that same talent to writing novels. Her longer form stories never quite had the same sparkle that shone in her short stories. I used to wonder how that could be. I can't help feeling that my novels are something of a disappointment, but I'm very pleased with some of my short stories like this one, Dragon. Perhaps I'm just not meant to write longer form stories.

One of my favorite writers, Janet Evanovich, wrote eleven novels before she finally sold one so I promised myself that I'd try to write that many before making final judgement.

In the meantime I'll still write short stories. I have plenty of ideas. Hopefully I'll never run short on them.

Comments

[greylock]

Her longer form stories never quite had the same sparkle that shone in her short stories.

I don't think I've read any of her shorts, but I do have her first novel here. I had been planning on reading it, but maybe I'll hold off until I get a few shorts under my belt. I am bound to come across some.

Perhaps I'm just not meant to write longer form stories.

It's definitely a skill that not everyone can master, and most of the people I can think of who did both cut their teeth in the pulp eras (Stephen King is a notable exception). I suppose it's just a case of practice, like most writing. And economics, if one is a working writer.

I can think of a few people who cannot write short stories (Orson Scott Card and Stephen Donaldson).

[miriam_e]

I hope you enjoyed it.

I idolise James (Alice Sheldon) Tiptree Jr. Brilliant writer. I'd post some collections to you, but I want to digitise them first. Her works are pretty-much non-existent in digital form -- a source of great annoyance to me. I periodically reread her stories and have to put up with paper. :)

Visiting your website ...

[anniebee]

I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have seen so far, on your site. It is very comprehensive, and gives me something else to read --- and there's a lot of reading to do. You write splendidly - and your subjects are most interesting.

Always good to see your contributions on AIM ... and now that I have joined this website, I might be able to find some occasions ( precious to me these days - I am as slow as a wet week at times ) to add to my own blog here - which is yet to be created !

I do hope you see this, but just in case ... I will c and p this on your home page ( I hope ) .... as I do enjoy what you write and convey.

Regards,
Annie B. ( anniebee )

Re: Visiting your website ...

[miriam_e]

Thanks Annie. :) I feel very flattered. I simply write for myself and hope others might like it. I do hope you enjoy more. I'm in the middle of writing another novel at the moment, but have a couple of short stories pushing to be written too, so they'll probably go up onto my site in the coming week or two. I don't expect the next novel will be finished for another month or two. (If you think you are slow then you haven't met me. :) Anybody looks speedy compared to me.)

I'm delighted that you've joined Dreamwidth. It is a great blog site. You don't have to pay for an account, though I do, because they refuse to be funded by advertisements. The site is fast and easy to use. Almost all the developers and other staff are women, which is very unusual. All their code is completely open source, letting anybody inspect it to help remove bugs. Privacy and security are extremely important to them. Each year they donate some of their profits to a worthy cause -- usually a foundation that promotes and supports women in programming, I think (which I've forgotten the name of just now).

Re: Visiting your website ...

[miriam_e]

Thanks to your comment I re-read my Dragon story to see if it needs editing and found, to my great surprise, that I used two similar but different names for the main character. Oops. I've fixed that and re-uploaded the story. It's amazing what errors we miss by being our own editor. :)