short fiction -

28Jul 2015 by Dianna L. Gunn

What is this creature?

Uncategorized

The final image I'll be sharing in London. What is this creature? Is it actually a plushie holding a plushie holding a plushie? Or is it some kind of spirit? Let me know what you think in the comments section below!

26Feb 2015 by Dianna L. Gunn

Special Author Feature: EJ Newman

Author Interviews

Today's author is another special guest who I interviewed here and had actually been stalking her on the internet--I mean subscribed to her newsletters full of short story goodness--for some time before I interviewed her. I was excited in that glorious fangirl way the first time I interviewed her, and now, several published books later, I am extremely pleased to welcome EJ Newman back to the blog. Please give EJ Newman a warm welcome. 1. We last spoke in May 2012. Can you talk a little bit about what your writing career was like at the time? It was a little bit strange. You know, it's hard to think back to that time – I measure my life in books written now, rather than dates. I think I had finished the…

02May 2012 by diannagunn

Author Interview: EJ Newman

Author Interviews, Reading Related, Short Fiction

Today I'm very proud to introduce EJ Newman, an author who I've been following online since a few months before she got her first publishing contract. A long, long time ago I discovered her blog, then I subscribed to her short story club, and now I'm subscribed to the Split Worlds stories. The short stories delivered to my inbox inspired me and made me fall in love with Newman's writing. A couple years later, I'm thrilled to say that she's decided to join us for an interview. 1. Can you tell us a bit about your novel, 20 Years Later? 20 Years Later is the first in a trilogy set in London twenty years after almost everyone was killed by something the survivors only refer to as 'It'. The city is…

06Feb 2012 by diannagunn

Common Critiquing Courtesy

Uncategorized

As promised, today I'm going to talk to you about common critiquing courtesy: how to deal with a harsh critique, and how to give a tactful critique. If you really do want to turn writing from a hobby into a career, it's important to know how to deal with harsh critics. When your book is out in the real world, it will face criticism. No matter how popular your novel is, there will always be at least one person who will absolutely hate your work. When it's a critiquer in a private forum, it's rude to send them angry responses telling them how awesome your work REALLY is. When it's a book reviewer online, it's not just rude--it can end your career. Remember that the first, and most important, rule…

23Jan 2012 by diannagunn

Editing a Short Story in Five Steps

Short Fiction, Uncategorized, Writing

Over the last week of December and the first week of January, we worked on fairly long short stories. Now it's time to talk about editing. Editing a short story is a much less painful process than editing a novel. It's a shorter process, and if you go through each of these steps you can make it a lot easier for yourself. I recommend taking a day or two away from your short story before you start editing it. You don't want to stay away a long time. Particularly if your end goal is to make money, it's a good idea to have several of these on the market at one time. When I edit a short story, I usually follow these steps: 1. Proofread on the computer. Sure, you…

20Jan 2012 by diannagunn

Fiction Prompt January 20th

Prompts, Short Fiction

While I am hoping to use several of these prompts to create standalone flash fiction, writing responses to these prompts from the PoV of one of my novel characters is a really good way to build character. Today I've got not only a prompt for you, but a small response to it that I wrote from the PoV (point of view, for those of you who don't know) of Riana, the main character in Moonshadow's Guardian. Today's prompt: Guilt My response: It's been thousands of years since I protected Eternia, but I will never forgive myself for failing her. She was just a little girl the first time we met. I remember her cute smile, her little head all covered in long black hair like a curtain. I remember her…

06Jan 2012 by diannagunn

A Prompt for the New Year

Inspirational, Prompts, Short Fiction, Writing

The new year has just begun. This first week is a great time to set the tone for the rest of 2012. We all have our own goals, both writing related goals and completely separate goals, for the new year. If we take the first steps towards those goals now, we're ahead. Don't tell yourself you can wait to start working on something because you have the whole year. Start working on it now. Right now I'm finishing up Birth of a Vampire, a short-ish story that will probably end up a little less than 10K. I'm also formulating a plan to edit my novel. As part of my plan to write and submit twelve pieces of fiction this year, I'm going to be writing an actually short story that…

02Jan 2012 by diannagunn

Working on a Longer Short Story

Inspirational, Short Fiction, Writing

Last week I challenged you to work on a longer short story. I'm going to spend 2012 working on writing stories shorter than anything I've written before--under 2, 500 words--but there's a short story that I wrote in the summer which I think will be better if I don't try to restrict its length. I'm working on a full rewrite of it now and considering extending the plot. A longer short story in this context is between 10, 000 and 15, 000 words. The word count allows you to cover a bit more ground without going into a complete novel. With the rise of ebooks, works of this length are becoming more and more viable. For me, whose short stories generally cover the span of a few days, aiming for…

26Dec 2011 by diannagunn

Finished My Novel

Goal setting, Inspirational, Short Fiction, Writing

I managed to finish my novel last week, at around 120, 000 words. Once Nanowrimo was over and I stopped padding the word count, everything went along pretty quickly. To be honest, I kind of hurried through the last two battles because I wanted to be done with that monster draft. But I finished it, which means I get to spend my Christmas break creating a plan of attack for the next edit of Moonshadow's Guardian. For those of you still finishing your novels, keep going. Take advantage of whatever time you have off to squeeze in an extra half hour of writing in. No matter how much or how little time you have off, you can still take advantage of a slice of it to finish your novel. And…

23Dec 2011 by diannagunn

It’s Prompt Time

Inspirational, Prompts, Short Fiction, Writing

As promised, today I have a prompt for you that will hopefully inspire you to write some awesome short fiction. I won't be doing this one today because I'm really focused on finishing my novel right now, but it's on my list to write next year. So, here goes: The day I died Take that however you want, make it into whatever you want, and please share with me what angle you've taken on this prompt.