{"id":7545,"date":"2018-12-27T08:57:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T14:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=7545"},"modified":"2018-12-27T08:57:11","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T14:57:11","slug":"fast-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2018\/12\/27\/fast-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Time<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around Christmas, 2017 — I released an episode<\/a> of my fiction podcast in which I shared a handful of very short fiction, instead of the usual single story for the episode. This year, I continued that tradition, releasing three stories last Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the rush of year-end work, polishing a novel<\/a>, and a general busy time of year with all the holidays, I wrote and released the episode in a bit of a blur…and was reminded that, for me, sometimes there’s something to writing quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I Prefer Slow Writing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you read the blog regularly, you know it took me a good handful of years to finish my current novel. I’ve written about how I understand the appeal of stories knocked out quickly, but how my preference is to move at a slower pace<\/a>. The books I love, when I read about the authors and processes behind them, are often books written over years — not months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when it comes to short stories, sometimes I love knocking them out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Draft + A Polish<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The three stories released for this year’s Not About Lumberjacks<\/a> holiday episode are all first drafts that went through a quick polish almost immediately after their completion. (And then left alone.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are stories each written during one sitting…followed by a quick read-through for punctuation and a little smoothing of rough edges. No real rewriting, though; what you hear or read is as close to a rough draft as I’ll ever share with a wider audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sense of Freedom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Because I spend a long time on bigger writing projects (or even some short stories), spending an hour or two on a short story and calling it done comes with a certain freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a reminder of what can be done when you have a deadline and decide, “You know, I’d love to explore this idea in the story, but I don’t have time for that — I’m here to finish this right now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some, that might sound like the opposite of freedom (“But don’t you want the freedom to explore all your thoughts?”). But when you usually do <\/em>explore most thoughts while writing, there’s something freeing about finishing a story in a single burst. (Perhaps liberating <\/em>is a better word, here, than freedom<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Big Reminder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

What I love most about writing a handful of stories in a short amount of time is connecting with the feeling I used to get when I was younger, when all writing seemed like an explosion. (And trust me: back then, some of the results were as messy as an explosion.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, it’s a reminder that writing’s become enough of a habit for me that when given a tight restriction — discipline, confidence, and even a certain proficiency take over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You recognize what you lean on and maybe make a note to not <\/em>lean on that so much in the future. (Or you recognize the things you do well that come naturally in your efforts.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly, it’s a reminder that when you’ve written enough, you trust yourself more than you doubt your abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Marc-Olivier Jodoin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around Christmas, 2017 — I released an episode of my fiction podcast in which I shared a handful of very short fiction, instead of the usual single story for the episode. This year, I continued that tradition, releasing three stories last Sunday. With the rush of year-end work, polishing a novel, and a general busy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7545"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7552,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions\/7552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}