Project - Short Story Exploration 2024

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Project: Short Story Exploration

 

Last year, I read 70 books, most of which were novels, so for 2024, I’m going to focus on short fiction. I’ll still be reading and reviewing novels, but I want to take a deep dive into short stories. I’ve been accumulating quite the backlog of anthologies, magazines, and bookmarked stories to read. I will be working my way through them and journaling about each short piece as I go, recording date, story, author, thoughts, what I learned, etc. I’m not setting a specific goal, but I am estimating reading somewhere around 250 stories of varying lengths this year. Then towards the end of each month, I’ll be posting my thoughts so far, recommendations, etc.


Why am I doing this? I want to get to know the short form better and, in turn, grow my own short fiction writing. I also want to develop a journaling habit, but have no interest in writing about my day-to-day life*.


Years ago, I turned up my nose slightly at short stories. I didn’t hate them, but I preferred a longer story. Something I could “really get into”. Then, I pushed myself to start reading more and developed first a taste, then a love for short fiction. During early Covid, I started playing around with my own short stories and flash fiction and fell even more in love with the form. I love how it’s easier to see the story as a whole, to get more ideas out, and be experimental in a way that doesn’t always work in longer fiction. 


I definitely have a long enough list of anthologies and magazines waiting, but if anyone wants to send me recommendations, go ahead. I prefer stories that are free to read online, because dropping down to one job has lowered my budget for books. I can return the favour through publicity on my social media and here.
 

I’m excited to see where this deep dive will take me and what impact it will have on my own short fiction writing, and I hope you’ll enjoy coming along with me.

 

 
 
 
*How boring that would be - woke up, fed the pets, went to work, broke up another marriage (I work in divorce law), came home, slept.

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