Writing short stories

I've submitted a few travel articles, and now I'm turning to short story writing. Because, after all, that's what I really am, or that's what I want to be: a fiction writer.

Years ago I finished writing my first short story. After that, I didn't touch it for a long, long time. I was a pro at procrastination, but only as concerned my writing. I did not know what kind of return I would get for it, or if indeed I would get any. That's how I was then.

In the past two weeks I have re-written my short story, composed another and begun rewriting that one too, and I have been gathering ideas for other short stories in my head.

But before going further, I decided to do a bit of research. I have been collecting names of literary periodicals and web-publications and organizing them in a word document, along with their website address and a few details about their guidelines, such as word count limit.

I also wanted to know what types of short stories are being published today. It all depends on the publication and what they're looking for, of course. It is however very difficult to follow the publication's suggestion and read samples of their contributors' work, as one must either buy a paper copy or pay for an online subscription. When I add up all the potential markets for my stories, it becomes rather expensive. I bought copies of two well-known literary periodicals for 10$ each and figured I would start there. I began to read. And immediately felt out of the loop.

In one periodical, there was one or more elements of the following in every short story: death, divorce, drugs, strong alcohol consumption as a means of forgetting, run-down apartments located next to the proverbial crack-house, murder, suggestions of child abuse, and of course monologues riddled with mistakes-made-on-purpose to make the speaker look "authentic." Needless to say, not my style of writing.

From what I've read in this publication I am forced to come to the conclusion that the list of contributors at the back of the book must be composed entirely of people on anti-depressants. When did the world become so grim? Even the poetry. Or, maybe, especially the poetry. There was one promising-looking poem entitled "Moonlight." The words were beautiful. Until I came to the last sentence: "And then he died." Or something like that.

I have heard that one must suffer to write. I don't believe it. Not for one second. Because if it were true, I would not be able to write. Should I just give up  now, because I have not seen someone die, because I did not live in a place where people get drunk and cows get slaughtered by the hundreds, or because the only drug (singular, not plural) I have ever done was a half-joint of marijuana on my 26th birthday?

I have been making up stories in my head since I was a kid. I think it's about time I got them down on paper. Even if they aren't frought with death, blood, drugs and crack-houses.

First published article

My first travel article, Lucy Maud Montgomery's Park Corner, was published last week! It was wonderful seeing my work "in print." And encouraging.

For any aspiring author out there who might be reading this, I will offer my first piece of advice as a "published writer": proofread your work, even after it appears in the publication. Formatting errors can occur, and might pass unnoticed. In the case of my article, there were apostrophes missing. And dashes - resulting in two sentences being awkwardly merged into one. I sent the corrections to the editor - and a few hours later, the mistakes were gone. That, by the way, is one great thing about publishing on the internet. Whereas if "its" has inadvertently been typed instead of "it's" in a print publication, the embarrassing mistake will remain as it is forever.

I have three other articles completed; one is hoping to find a spot in a newspaper, and two others are in the process of being proofread / edited. All these articles are related to my one-month stay in Rome. When finding a goldmine of material, a writer ought to use it. I searched online as well as print publications for whom I could write articles relating to certain aspects of my stay in Rome. I chose three topics, and adapted them to the style of the publication. One in particular, Transitions Abroad, offers a very broad scope of travel articles. It took quite a bit of time and research to find and decide on which section of the website my travel experiences would best match. After deciding on a section, I read a few examples of published articles to get an idea of what the publishers are looking for. It takes time to research a publication, but it is necessary. I do not believe my first article would have been published if I had not taken the time to research before writing.

Speaking of time: I cannot imagine how I would have found any without having someone to take care of my daughter while I work. I have a 15-month old toddler who is not yet in daycare, and a husband who is in Afghanistan until Christmas. I am a new writer, with no more than one published article to brag about. I needed help. And boy, did I find it. It came as no less than a gift to me over the phone one day back in June. My best friend's mother, who is retired, called and offered to babysit mornings for the whole summer. I wanted to fall to my knees with gratitude. There is hardly a better person to take care of my baby. She started this week, and I have had every morning, from Monday to Friday, to write. I come to the university library and sit, undisturbed, at my "usual" table, with my Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus. I could not ask for better.

First publication

Years ago, while I was vacationing with family at a favorite cottage near the north cape of PEI, I wrote an "impressionistic sketch" of the house on the shore I had grown to love since my first summer there. I showed the sketch to my aunt, and after she had read it I told her how it was my dream to become a writer, but that I was scared.

"Write. Just write," she told me, and these words stuck with me.

How fitting that the Island would form the setting of an article that is set to appear in Literary Traveler in just a few weeks. I will post a link to it when it is published.

I have published before. A few years ago, I wrote some articles for a local newspaper. But these were assignments. The article I mention above is the first to be published that really comes from me. When I received the acceptance and offer of payment for that article, I felt like a real writer for the first time. In spite of all the writing I have done since I was about fifteen, in my little notebooks, my diaries and on my computer - only when a piece of my own writing I had sincerely loved putting to paper was accepted for publication did I truly feel like a writer.

I am aware this post sounds like a happy conclusion to a long and arduous career. It is not. This is only the beginning. There is (hum hum) that manuscript that has been collecting dust on my computer (figuratively speaking, of course) for the past eight years. That's right. Eight years. Only now do I feel ready to tackle that sucker.

That is, right after I finish writing a few more articles.