Month: August 2026

Short Stories vs. Long Stories

by Gayle Bartos-Pool

Here’s the long and the short of both…

Writers have a story to tell. Sometimes they want to produce a saga that covers decades in the lives of their many characters. Sometimes the story covers a shorter time period but lots of things happen during those days. There might be tons of details about the people, the places where the action happens, and deep diving looks into the who, what and why of the tale. This all takes pages and pages of description and dialogue that fill up a 250 or 300 or even a 400 page book.

Then there are the shorter stories that can be told in 20 to 50 pages. There will be just enough description to let the reader know a little bit about the few characters who appear in the tale. The long descriptive passages are reduced to a paragraph or maybe just a sentence. Just enough detail is left so the reader gets a rough idea about the characters, the location and the meaning of the story. As for the writer, he’s gearing these short stories to a reader who has enough imagination to fill in the gaps.

This is not to say that the reader of a long novel has no imagination. Far from it. The people who read novels want to experience every detail…basically get lost in the description and even find themselves walking down the streets of the old town mentioned in the story or watching the sunrise in some exotic locale where the main characters are talking. The description is so detailed that the reader can almost see the place for himself.

But readers have their preferences, too. Sometimes the reader has the time and the desire to get lost in a long novel. Other folks might not have the time, so they opt for several shorter stories whenever they find a few minutes to grab a cup of coffee and read.

Then there’s the other problem…

Too often people just don’t read. (Expletive deleted!) They wouldn’t think of picking up a 300-page novel, but they aren’t interested in the short story, either. What to do? What to do?

Sometimes just mentioning a book you recently read or even one you read years earlier that you really liked might pique the interest of a friend or acquaintance. If you’re trying to get a kid to finally read a book…try bribing them. Maybe $5.00 a book, but they have to tell you all about that book, not just the Editorial Review version on Amazon.

You could always start a Book Club in your neighborhood. Try including a classic book along with newer titles in the selection process. Since some of the latest books aren’t exactly Gone with the Wind, read a few and see if they capture your imagination.

Or…and here’s a challenge: Ask folks to try writing their own short story for the readers’ group and see what happens. They can read each other’s work. That will stimulate their imagination. One of my Christmas novels, Every Castle Needs a Dragon, is about a young dragon who works with Santa Claus and does just that: Lights the fire of imagination of kids so they read. Don’t we need to do that for kids and grown-ups alike?

So, try stimulating the reading urge in folks and even yourself. That’s how we learn stuff and enjoy the journey while we’re doing it.

Read and Write On!

Time Passes: How Long Do Writers Write?

by Linda O. Johnston

I know the answer most likely is FOREVER! But I’d love to hear here of any differences. 

Me? Well, I started writing my first book while in grade school, about, of course, a kid and a dog. Fortunately, I typed it out, and my mother saved it. I therefore have it in my stack of old stuff from my early days—though don’t ask me to get it out right away. I’d have to find it. 

I worked hard enough in my classes in grade school, junior high, and high school to do reasonably well. My favorite classes? English, especially if we had to write something. I don’t think I wrote a lot of stories of my own, but there were some. 

I went to Penn State for undergraduate school. My major? Journalism. And yes, I got to write assignments and otherwise. In fact, I worked in advertising and public relations for a while after graduation. 

Then came law school and the start of my legal career—and the beginning of my published novels. The first was The Glass Slipper, published in 1996. And that was just the beginning. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to have quite a few books published, and I just keep on going. But I’d love to hear from other published authors who read this. When did you start writing? When did you first get published? Are you still writing, and will you continue? 

And for those of you who are unpublished but hope to be published someday: Keep on going!

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NOTE: For some reason, our “old” blog site doesn’t often take comments from others. (We are not sure why.) But if you have an answer for Linda, you can email me (Jackie; I post these for Linda), and I’ll relay it to her. Photojaq@aol.com.

MISSING….

by Rosemary Lord

I really miss the writers’ conferences we used to have. We were lucky in California; we had at least 2 each year – sometimes more, lasting from Friday through Sunday. Sometimes starting Thursday.

They were usually in Culver City or Pasadena – occasionally downtown LA or in Long Beach.

Our Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America chapters would often pool together to present these. California Crime Writers Conference was another popular convention.

They took a lot of organizing. Planning would start at least a year ahead, sometimes longer. The writing community would be notified of the theme – there was always a theme. One of the Left Coast Crime conferences was called ‘Southwest Sleuths’, ‘Trouble in Tucson” another they called ‘Murders a Beach.’

Way, way ahead the organizers would start a Nominating Committee for attendees to vote on their favorite or best authors in different categories. The culmination of the conferences would be the Saturday Night Banquet, when awards would be given out for each category attendees had previously voted on.

Volunteers were sought – to do everything from greeting attendees, manning the check-in desks, monitoring each of the workshops and running the onsite bookshop where attending authors could sell their books. They’d thought of everything.

The buzz would start about guest speakers and who the keynote speaker would be. The late great ‘alphabet’ series author Sue Grafton was a popular choice.  Canadian writer Louise Penny another. Scottish-born Catriona McPerson was always a crowd-pleaser. They would speak at the evening events including the final night banquet.

The conference would open with a big breakfast event: a chance to see who was attending and catch up with long-lost fellow writers.

Each day, the schedule was filled with different ‘tracks’ or workshops and lectures.  There was usually a series of workshops on the craft of writing: guest writers and teachers on the ‘How To…’ aspects of actually getting something on paper. Then a Promotion Track. Once you’d sold your book and were about to be published, the lectures were on how to promote your book and yourself. This would include different publicity and promotion ideas. Do you need to hire a publicist, or can you do it on your own? That sort of thing.

Other tracks included Forensic workshops. I found these were the most fascinating. They dealt with actual crime scenes, secrets of the morgue and so on. Pictures of gruesome crime scenes – then a talk with the people that clean up all this gore. Who knew that was a job? “And what do you do for a living?” “Oh, I mop up the blood and clean up murder scenes…” How’s that for a party-stopper?

There’d be a workshop on how to murder someone – fun things like that. Discussions on the efficacy of different poisons – and how quick-acting they would be – or not. Painful deaths or a quick ‘you’re dead.’ We must sound quite mad – but when you get all these writers minds together, sparks really do fly! And amazing new thrillers and tales of murder and mayhem get spawned.

Investigation talks from FBI agents, detectives and private investigators would discuss their different approaches and what their work entailed. FBI agents and private detectives talked about their procedures and presented a mock-up of a crime scenes with questions and answers.

The Nick Harris Detective Agency enthralled attending writers with tales going back to their origins as the first detective agency in in Los Angeles starting in 1906. Would love to have been a fly on the wall then!

Agents from the police department would discuss police procedures and answer the writer’s many questions.

There would be field trips. One that I went on was to the city Forensic Lab, where we were shown investigations in progress on different murders. There was a set up with dummies and infra-red lights working out the trajectory of bullets in a dummy corpse. Another was a bench where a young victim’s clothes were set out for examination. Brown grocery bags were stacked with evidence.  Other field trips would be a tour of local murder sites and other fun things!

There would be workshops on historical novel writing, historical research and marketing the same. Aspects of writing novels set in foreign countries. Other ‘tracks’ would be on the publishing side of a writer’s world. Agents, editors, publishers would offer their expertise. Of course, the unpublished writers all hoped to get taken on by one of them. Everything a mystery writer or novelist could want.

One of the best things about these long weekends at the conferences is that we writers would all get together. Writer friends from all over the world would congregate for the weekend. A chance to meet authors of new books we’d read. A chance to compare notes, compare writing methods and swap ideas. We’d catch up with out of towners at the hotel bar – or over the New Authors Breakfasts served in the ballroom, where novice writers were introduced. At the lunches (served in the same room) it was a chance to sit with someone new, make new friends. The Saturday night Banquet was when everyone would dress up and applaud the nominees and winners for the Best First Novel, the Best Historic Novel, Best YA (Young Adult) Novel. And so on. And a grand time would be had by all.

And so, the Sunday morning departures were often bitter-sweet. Time to get back to the real world.

But that was then. It’s a different world today. The Covid shutdowns changed everything. Now the ‘conferences’ are on Zoom.

On the plus side, it’s a lot cheaper. No-one has to travel and people all over the globe can attend. But it’s not the same. Seeing familiar faces in a little square on your computer screen is not the same as the shrieks of joy when you spot an old friend, a fellow writer from far off lands that you haven’t seen for a year.

So, I miss all that razzmatazz of the in-person conferences. Whatever the cost.

And you can’t do hugs on Zoom.

HOW TO GROW A STORY, PART TWO

by Miko Johnston

Those of us who cultivate a vegetable garden should be enjoying the bounty of our spring and summer labor, perhaps getting ready to plant heartier vegetables for the fall. I thought I’d covered all the parallels between gardening and writing last year around this time, when I posted HOW TO GROW A STORY, but I’ve found more.  The comparisons continue in PART TWO:

Choosing what to plant

Your local farmers market sells produce that thrives in your growing zone and the majority of shoppers want to buy. That means you must decide what’s worth planting yourself and what you’d rather purchase. I grow less popular crops as well as those best eaten when they’re fresh picked.

A writer must decide whether working in the more popular genres and following current fads, which might be more profitable, should outweigh the desire to write stories we want to tell, even if sales won’t be as strong.

Support your plants

Some plants need structure, literally – cages for tomatoes or trellises for climbing vines. In writing, the plot or premise provides structure on which to build your story. Aside from physical structure, plants also need healthy soil amended with composted material and fertilizer, ample sunlight and water to grow and thrive.

Writers can fertilize ideas with the works of other writers. Reading books that successfully carry a story through from Once upon a time to The end, as well as books about the craft of writing, provide inspiration and insight on how to make it happen in our own stories. Listening to well-told stories teaches us how to make our written words more visual and captivating. A critical eye, like sunshine, allows us to see what’s best kept in and what’s best weeded out.  We can sidestep preventable errors with technical books like the dictionary, thesaurus, and the Chicago Manual of Style (for fiction). Also, a good fiction writer knows sometimes adding a little – ahem – manure helps.

Protect your plants

From seed to harvest, many pests out there can ruin a crop. Netting prevents birds from eating the seeds or destroying sprouts. Good fencing keeps predators like rabbits, deer and snails out of the beds (sometimes). Weeds must be pulled, plants sprayed or constantly inspected for signs of disease and insects.

Likewise, cliches, repetitive or pointless scenes that divert from the plot, formulaic characters, and excess verbiage can ruin a good story. Rigorously weeding out these elements in our revised draft will strengthen our work.

When in doubt, ask an expert

I’ve learned a lot about gardening through trial and error: Harvest vegetable seeds only from organic plants. Rely on starts for slow growers like basil and tomatoes. Never grow more than one zucchini plant, and monitor it daily unless you want baseball bats and truncheons (same for cucumbers). Many of the lessons I’ve learned about writing came from trial and error as well. But if you’re having a problem in the garden that you can’t solve, go to a nursery, arborist or a master gardener for help. That’s how I discovered why my watermelon radishes didn’t grow – I planted them at the wrong time.

The same goes for your writing. I’ve gotten marvelous advice from my fellow writers, as well as other sources you might not have considered, like a local bookstore owner, history professors who specialize in the era I write about, my doctor, police officers, and librarians. Conversations with family and friends about loved ones in our past have reminded me of personal traits or events that have worked their way into my stories and books. And my grandson helped me murder someone and get away with it – okay, that came out wrong. He’s majoring in forensic science and helped me kill off a character in my novel.

Many readers know a great deal about a great deal, so even in fiction, one false step in a story will put them off. I helped one author correct some technical flaws in his globe-trotting novel because I’d been to the places he’d written about. A sci-fi writer checked a plot point with my husband, a physicist who understands what would really happen to humans outside Earth’s atmosphere. He explained an astronaut would freeze, not burn up, in outer space. Use whatever resources you can to make your story as viable and believable as you can.

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Even if you don’t have a garden, you can rely on these tips to plant the seed of an idea, then support and nurture it into a fully-fledged story that satisfies the reader’s appetite as much as the bounty of summer.

Miko Johnston, a founding member of The Writers in Residence, is the author of the historical fiction series, “A Petal in the Wind”. Her fifth and final book in the series is about to be published. She’s also a contributor to several anthologies, including the bestselling “Whidbey Island: An Insider’s Guide”. Miko lives in Washington (the big one) with her rocket scientist husband. Contact her at mikojohnstonauthor@gmail.com