We here at WEP would like to offer a hearty congratulations to Jemi Fraser for winning the WEP/IWSG April Challenge Jewel Box. All winners are offered to write a guest post on any topic they choose, but we always like to read something about their writing journey.
Jemi wrote a heartfelt tale of a man reliving the memories of a life spent together with the woman he loves as she dies, her hand in his. Our judge Nick Wilford said of her entry: "...short and sweet, very sad but also uplifting at the same time, love and loss captured in just a few lines. I could hear the music box and the short sentences seem to echo the slightly jerky motion of the dancer."
For her guest post, Jemi has chosen to write about transitioning from writing longer works to shorter ones.
From Long to Short
I’m not a person who wrote stories
as a kid. Created them in my head? Absolutely. Put them down on paper? Nope.
The thought didn’t even cross my mind.
We had exactly 2 creative
assignments in elementary school (both Grade 6) and zero creative writing
assignments in high school — and I took every available English class.
A whole lot of years ago I wrote a
Star Trek story for fun. I had a blast! It took forever and it was absolute
trash I’m sure. All +200k words are probably on a floppy disk somewhere…
Then I wrote another novel because
that had been so much fun. About a reporter, a cop, and a lot of dead bodies.
Another 190k words of trash. But fun!
That’s when I realized that maybe I
could actually write a book. It hadn’t really crossed my mind that people who
weren’t Authors could write books. (I know!) I’ve been writing since.
While my current stories aren’t
nearly as long as my first couple of just-for-me novels, I’d never tried my
hand at writing a short story until the IWSG put out the prompt for the Tick
Tock: A Stitch in Crime anthology.
An idea popped into my head. With
far too many viewpoints for a short story.
But, why not? I didn’t have to show
anyone if it stunk.
I normally write romance and
nonfiction, so writing these 8 characters (all with evil intent) was so much
fun!
After some playing around and
advice from a friend (thanks Deniz!) I added names to the snippets and the
story worked.
Now, I’ve tried a few more shorts
for the WEP challenges and I’m still having a lot of fun with them!
All this to point out that (for me)
writing is ALL about trying something new. About having fun and putting even
the weirdest ideas down on paper. Each time we write we learn something and
hopefully get better!
How about you? When was the
last time you tried something new? Were you a writer as a kid? Do you prefer
the Long or the Short?
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Thanks Jemi!
So join us here at WEP. Write lots. Get better. Be kind to others. It’s the path that matters.
If you'd like to write for us here at WEP (Write...Edit...Publish), you are most welcome. We are open to flash fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photo essays, art...
Our June prompt is Caged Bird. That should bring forth some interesting entries. Lots of possibilities to choose from and explore!
You can sign up starting June 1st and post any day up through June 19th!
We'd love if you'd Tweet one of these:
The WEP 2019 April Challenge Jewel Box Winner Jemi Fraser on From Long to Short - @TheIWSG @DeniseCCovey https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2019/05/wepff-winner-jemi-fraser-talks-about.html #amwriting #flashfiction #WEPFF
#WEPFF Jewel Box winner Jemi Fraser's guest post is up. @DeniseCCovey @theIWSG
https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2019/05/wepff-winner-jemi-fraser-talks-about.html #amwriting #flashfiction
Do you prefer the long or the short write? @TheIWSG @DeniseCCovey https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2019/03/wepff-winner-dixie-j-jarchow-writes.html #amwriting #flashfiction #WEPFF