I have to admit – I’m somewhat nervous about attempting to write a longer story. Do I have what it takes? Can I develop both the plot and the characterizations properly to keep the story moving, to keep it interesting, to keep my readers engaged?
Flash fiction is easy. It’s merely the putting into words a particular scene in my head. Piece of cake. It’s the moving beyond that scene that unnerves me. What happens next? Where do my characters go from here? What do they say? How does everything end up? How do I tie this small scene to others floating around in my head to tell the bigger story? It’s one thing to tell a story in 1000 words or less. Quite another to push on to 3000 words, 5000 words, or – eek! – 30000 words.
Honestly, I don’t know if I’m up to the challenge. I hope I am; I want to be. It’s not like I don’t have a dozen different stories to tell. I just don’t know if I can tell them well – and I want to. I want to do them justice.
What I know is that I am going to try. So far, my writing has been compared to Nathaniel Hawthorne and an early Stephen King, so that gives me hope that I might be able to actually do this.
We’ll see. If I’m lucky, I’ll surprise myself.
