Ten. Ten short stories. Ah, ah, ah.

[mrissa]

Today has been a hard day, a cruddy day--nothing new, nothing unusual, just several physical factors at low ebb all at once. And I was starting to feel like I was not getting anything much done.

And then for some reason, I'm not sure why, I looked at how many pieces of short fiction I've written this year, and the answer is ten. That's assuming I don't finish any of the ones it might be reasonable for me to finish this year, and "Blood Man Calls the Whale" is sort of humming along nicely at the moment and promises, absolutely promises not to metastasize into novelette, unlike some other pieces I could mention. But without that wrapping up in the next fortnight, without anything else finishing itself off or showing itself whole cloth: ten stories. And not a great lack of novel work, either. That's the most since 2003, which means the most since we moved home, the most since most of you have known me.

That is not actually too shabby.

I even like several of them, which is not too shabby either.

So maybe it might be time for me to give myself a little credit here, internally.

Huh.

Comments

[fredcritter.livejournal.com]

Yup. Giving yourself credit is always one of the hardest things to do. Here's to you!

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Here, have an Icon of Creation. \o/

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Ten stories is not too shabby. Ten stories plus novel work among the kind of year you've had is somewhere well beyond "not shabby".

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Please do (give yourself credit.) This is an excellent accomplishment.

[ckd]

That is, indeed, not shabby at all.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Not too shabby at all! And I'll root for it to be eleven (and especially for things not metastasizing -- I hate it when they do that).

It's funny, the way the brain fixates on things you haven't done, and forgets to allow itself credit for the ones you have. Between March 2007 and November 2008 I wrote no short fiction at all. Mind you, in that same span of time I wrote three count them three novels -- two of them Onyx Court books -- but no, all we seem capable of noticing around here is that there are only three lines in the "list of things I've completed" for that span of time, which surely means I've fallen down on the job.

Brains. They're weird, I tell ya.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Shabby is like okay: it's a line, not a region.

[redbird]

Yes, give yourself credit.

Making lists and counting things can help: the accomplishments don't always come to mind when they should, or in groups.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Regarding metastasizing, there was a time before I knew how the last bit of year would go when I was thinking, "Well, perhaps I will finish 'Twelve Things You Don't Know About Dryads' and 'Carter Hall Goes to the Boards' this year, and since I've already finished 'The Six Skills of Madame Lumiere,' I can call it The Year Of The Novelette, and then next year can be Not The Year Of The Novelette." Because I hate trying to sell novelettes. And then I didn't finish either of those, and "Campus Tour" clearly metastasized also, and I am giving 2010 something of the stinkeye when it comes to novelettes.

And yes, one of the things I had to take into account when making this post is that I also finished up a novel and worked significantly on another one. If I hadn't, the ten short stories might well have fallen down the well of "but not a novel, so that's half of what I do." Strange, strange brains.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

That's more short stories this year than I have ever written!

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Ten short stories is in fact a very significant accomplishment. Particularly if done without cutting out novel work entirely. And to some extent you gotta write what the brain brings around to be written, after all; the flexibility isn't infinite.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This breaks my brain.

[swords-and-pens.livejournal.com]

Ten? That's more short stories than I think I have ever written. My muse doesn't get along well with the short form for whatever reason. So, that alone impresses me greatly, as it's something I can't fathom doing. And then throw in novel work on top of it? A good year indeed, by my reckoning.

Look at the things, not the spaces between them, to better measure your accomplishments. You have good things to see. :)

[columbina.livejournal.com]

I write ten short stories a decade.

And, as others have pointed out, not only have you done those in addition to a slew of more long-form writing, but you're dealing with a lot of candlesticks here.

I move you be given Official Woot. Woot! Seconded?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, some people only get ideas for shorter lengths and some only for longer. I think I'm glad I get both, because short stories provide instant gratification for me in ways that novels can't, but on the other hand I like having longer, more complicated projects as well.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm not dealing with quite enough candlesticks, actually. One of my oldest friends (er, longest-term friends) is getting married, and candlesticks always make a nice gift, or so I hear. And they're not registered anywhere that I know of, because registries tend to want you to list "bride" and "groom" and there is no bride in this wedding. So if not candlesticks, I'm not sure what. But I haven't found candlesticks to suit.

*cogitate cogitate cogitate*

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Seconded! Woot!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

This was supposed to be the year in which I would knock off a bunch of my short story ideas that don't require research, so as to purge the list a bit without having to kill my brain. Instead I wrote "Chrysalis" and "Deeds of Men" and "Serpent, Wolf, and Half-Dead Thing," and I'm trying to finish "And Blow Them at the Moon," and all of those came with varying but non-trivial amounts of research. Sure, I also wrote "Love, Cayce" and "Remembering Light" and "Comparison of Efficacy Rates" (whose only research was done on Wikipedia, which means it doesn't count) -- but none of those were on the list of unfinished short story ideas. So I'm giving 2010 the stinkeye too, even if it's really kind of my fault.

[hbevert.livejournal.com]

Add to your to-do list: pat self on back. Thumb nose at 2009.