Florence’s Blog 2 4-4-12
First Steps in
Creating a Collection of Short Stories
Last
week I put my stories down all over my floor. Some are published stories already
in print and some are still in manuscript form making the rounds of print and
on-line ‘zines. Since I want my collection
of linked stories to trace a large extended family over three generations, many
of the characters will have to appear and reappear at different times in their
lives, interacting with one another and impacting each other as the years go
by. I was looking for these connections.
All week I walked
around the pages, peering down to see which stories meshed, which characters
appeared in more than one story or could appear in another later story. Some clearly were about the same family as
the years went by and things changed in their lives. Some stories had absolutely no connection to
any others.
After a few days
of living with the chaos, I made a pile of the stories that I thought I could
use, and I put the other ones away. I
found I have about thirteen stories that, with some editing and linking, I can
use together. I began to pose questions
to myself about ways to connect them and link the characters, one to
another. Over the next weeks I’ll be
posting some of those questions, and the ways in which I answer them. Stay tuned.
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