Fiction?

[nutty_irishman]

I've had creative ambitions for as long as I can remember. While I'm certainly no Mozart-like prodigy, I developed a wide range of artistic skills as a child, especially musical and visual arts. In fact, I approach software more as a (highly abstract) art form than an engineering discipline. That plus the nice salary is why I chose this career path

Comments

[ex_serenejo]

The book "Writing down the bones" was very helpful to me in this regard. Keep it up; it's worth it.

[nora_torious]

I had something poetic to say here, but it completely escaped me when The Squirrel Nut Zippers came on itunes.

Sorry

[nutty_irishman]

It's OK, I totally understand. The Squirrel Nut Zippers can do that to a person. Thanks to both of you for the encouragement. :)

[lishablog]

A technique I've started recently is writing larger fiction in the form of lots of short stories. I come up with an idea for a big picture, and over arching theme, some characters, and some ideas. Then I start writing one short story at a time. As I write I sometimes find that the stories fit together perfectly as chapters. Other times, they just fit within the larger framework of world building.

This short story tactic helps me to not feel overwhelmed with my success or failure at accomplishing some big goal. It also means that I can try out story pieces on different people to find out how they hang together or how they stand separately. Finally, it also means that I can publish individual stories on my Website or in magazines or journals before the final "book" is done. That also helps to prove the marketability of the final book and won't get in the way of selling the final product as long as the whole thing hasn't been published already.

Good luck!

[nutty_irishman]

Thanks for the tip! That idea did occur to me, and it's good to hear that it can work well. I actually have to work my way up to short story length; even that is "longer fiction" relative to my current organizational skills. But of course, the problem can be decomposed one level further, using short-short fiction to build short stories. ;)