As a fairly new author, sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed. Formatting, editing, proofreading - as a self-published author, it's all on me.
The misplaced comma, the sentence I find that has a word missing, the word I'm still not sure is the one I want - these are among the ever-present terrors I face. Suddenly I'm seized by self-doubt; I may even start to wonder if the idea for the story is even any good.
I started writing a long time ago, but wasn't really getting anything done, usually because of being distracted by other ideas, or just not having time to write. I finally chose to write and self-publish short stories because I worry that I don't have the commitment it takes to write a novel. To stick with the same story idea and get three or four hundred pages out of it. I already had a few different ideas, some from years earlier, so a couple of years ago, I began to work on turning them into actual, complete stories.
I love working with several different story lines and characters. Short stories are great because they give you the same drama or suspense as a novel, but with a quicker resolution to the conflict between the protagonist and antagonist. I pour myself into each and every story when I'm writing, but editing is sometimes a different - ahem - story.
It's usually pretty easy for me to stay focused on one story at a time, but when I'm editing a collection of short stories, I may go back to a story if something occurs to me about it while I'm working on editing another. I can't even imagine editing novels.
Don't get me wrong. I'd love to write a novel. Even if the grind of sticking to one idea and drafting a much longer story takes the fun out of the writing. I think it would be awesome to accomplish the task of completing an entire novel. There are characters of mine that I'd like to write more about.
So. Self-publishing. It's a lot of work, but I'm no stranger to hard work. It has been a learning experience, and I continue to have to re-learn things like page numbering and making a table of contents. I've had to fix and upload PDF files of my manuscript more than once (my first upload was accidentally a Word file). I've fumbled through designing my own book covers and spent hours staring at a computer screen or pouring over a proof copy of my book, looking for errors, only to miss something and see it later after I hit publish. Thank goodness for print-on-demand!
I confess I've added minor details to a few of my stories later too. I guess sometimes I really don't feel like I'm done with a story if there is still some little thing bugging me. Shhh.
Every story I write is like a living, breathing document to me - they are the offspring of my imagination. I can't help but watch over them even after they have been written.
I think, or at least I hope, I am getting better at the whole self-publishing thing. I'd like to think my writing is getting better too. With each story, I feel more confident, and I'm not second-guessing myself as much.
In the world of writing short stories, the imagination takes you lots of different places and into the lives of many characters in fairly quick succession. A sudden new story idea popping up is actually a benefit, not a hindrance. I love that I can create so many different works that it would take years to write if they were all novels. They may be smaller stories, but they can have just as big an impact on the reader as a novel.
Final confession - I always like to leave a little something up to the reader's imagination when it works for the story. And I love that "keep them guessing" thing!
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