I’m doing it again, challenging myself to write eight short stories in eight weeks. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons, but mostly I want to push myself to write more (Soooo many books! So little time) and to squash my inner bitch critic, and there’s the added benefit of having stories to put into the next Short Bits collection.
I did a similar challenge last year; it was a success so this time I’m adding a few extra layers to the challenge.
The first layer, take a bite out of one of the challenges I didn’t complete last year, which was to knock eight titles off the list of Great Finishing. I managed to finish five stories last year (Scholar, SEED, Transmission, Bug Hunt and The Blue) and almost made it to six (Gamer is sooo close to being done!) and I want to start the year by conquering another.*
The second layer is to help me meet one of my other 2024 challenges, which is to write and submit 6 shorties to anthologies and/or short story magazines. Why? Well, while I’ve been successful in smashing my inner bitch’s critic’s issues with writing and publishing short stories (the whole reason behind Short Bits), I still have some hang-ups about submitting them elsewhere, and the best way to fix that is… You guessed it, submit them to anthologies and magazines!
Who woulda’ thought, right?
Oh and, as a little note, if you scored one of the Written In rewards as part of the Short Bits Collected Edition Kickstarter, these are the stories I’ll be writing you into.
Anyways, the rules of the challenge are pretty simple:
- Write 8 short stories between 1 Jan & 3 March 2024.
- Stories can be any length, in any genre, but I’m aiming for an average of 3k words per story.
- At least 1 story will be from the Great Finishing, the rest will be inspired by calls for submissions from various sci-fi and fantasy magazines.
Some of the anthologies and magazines providing inspiration are:
- Baen Fantasy Award. I got a necromancer with this one’s name written all over her grimoire.
- Gamut: Winter in the City. Dark urban fantasy set in a real world city. Melbourne, my old stomping ground sounds pretty good for this one. Plus, I already have a story in mind.
- The Dragon’s Hoard. A story featuring dragons! I think it’s time for Nidhogg, the dragon from Don’t Die to take the spotlight.
- Parsek Ink: Hospitum. I got nothing but I’m sure that won’t be a problem for long.
If you want to follow along, keep an eye on the blog, I’ll be sharing my trials and tribulations here.
*There are only two short stories left on the list, the rest are novels.
Featured photo by Art Lasovsky on Unsplash.