#amwriting #authors Idea Farming—growing your plot #2—Container Gardening

In this post, the second blog on story farming, the focus is Container Gardening (short stories). To review, here's the complete list of story gardens.

Container (short stories)

Backyard (anthologies and/or novella-length pieces)

The South 40 (the novel)

Mega Farming (the book series).

Given a choice, I’d write almost exclusively short stories. Something is satisfying in planting and growing a tale in just a few hundred to a few thousand-word container, analogous to a pot or raised bed garden, as opposed to tens of thousands of words in gardens of larger size.

Once you choose a seed, it’s imperative to prepare the soil. Even when writing a short story, having an end in mind when you begin a story is critical. Remember that the harvest from your container is a short story, complete with a planned ending.

Start with a premise. If you don’t know what your end product will be when you write, how will know when your finished?

Consider your target length. Most short-story competitions have word count limits. Three thousand words is a common limit. Aiming for a specific numerical goal is good practice in the discipline of writing without the fluff.

Minimally, the cultivation of container gardens involves 

• a rough outline, 
• character sketches, 
• some plans for what your characters will discuss in dialog format. 

Determine the pecking order among characters before you begin or you'll find yourself re-writing to correct contradictory actions and dialog.

"Sir Isaac's Car" is a short story anthology of mine. It is a series of stories, all between 1500 and 5000 words in length. I recommend it as for examples of different ways to explore the same characters. The stories are written in the first-person perspective, something that sounds easy, but isn't. More on that in a later blog.

Anthology publications:
"What goes around" (9735 words) in 

A World Unimagined: An Anthology of Science and Speculative Fiction exploding the boundaries of your imagination.

"Drop by Drop" (4580 words) in

Mindscapes Unimagined: An Anthology of the Supernatural, Science Fiction, and Horror

If you have never written a short story, or only written a few, I encourage you to take the time to grow one soon. You’ll find out that writing shorter is more challenging in many regards than writing longer. 

But, it’s excellent practice in honing your storytelling skill.

Next week: Idea Farming—growing your plot #3—The Backyard Garden

SEO: short stories, writing, word count

Follow me on 

Twitter: @CRDowningAuthor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuck-downing-97595266/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAuthor

My website is: www.crdowning.com

Email: crd.author@gmail.com

My Blogs

Life as I see it. Topics rotate between those of general interest to lovers of life,  authors, teachers—probably you, too.  Posts on Tuesdays and some Mondays.  http://crdowning-author.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context. Posts M/W of discussion questions. Thursdays - Timeless Truths. Fridays - Expressions of Faith. https://mychristiancontext.blogspot.com/  

I'd appreciate your feedback on Blogger!