I live writing short stories. Hell, I love short stories in general. My book shelves are lined with anthologies and periodicals, and my phone’s podcast app are packed with short story ‘casts. I’ve had quite a few short stories published, with one well known actor liking one enough to steal it and adapt it for his own youtube channel (which I would be angry about…. but he did such a good job) and being shortlisted for a couple of awards.
However, I also want to make a living out of writing, and unfortunately, it’s not the 19th century anymore (which is doubly a shame because I would rock a top hat), so short stories aren’t going to cut that.
Why am I bringing this up? Because recently a couple of magazines put out some anthology calls which immediately caught my attention with the kind of excitement that sees stories develop behind my eyes even as I’m reading the submission guidelines (side note – ALWAYS follow the submission guidelines).
And yet… my time is limited. Three kids, full time job, lots of other stuff going on and all that. Which means my writing time is already less than what I’d like. And I have a noir novel that needs editing and a middle grade superhero novel that needs drafting, and I have a sequel to Children of the Wild to write and… you get the idea.
Some guy called Neil Gaiman once said he always wanted to be a writer, so all his work decisions were based on the question “would this take me to full time writing quicker?” If it did, great. If it didn’t, well, sacrifices must be made.
So, with a heavy heart those two story ideas have been shelved. Still good ideas, but let’s say they’re ahead of their time. I can come back to them when I’m doing this full time.
Michael