Writing short stories

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by crich70

One trick that Piers Anthony mentions in an article that I read (as part of a book he wrote) was the use of [ ]'s. He suggested that when you come to a point where you need to name something, etc. just put it in [ ]'s and go back to it later.

Can I refine that a bit, Crich?

I use that kind of trick when I'm not happy with a name, but instead of [], I'll put in some combination of symbols that I can easily find later. Might be, say, $hero1, $hero2, $village, $co-headquarters and so on.

[James_Wilde]

I agree with the comments on the importance of writing almost for its own sake. You may find as you go along that some of your 'scenes' fit into one story and others into another. Or you may find that a very small change to a scene that you think is not related to some of the others can turn it into an extra bit of that story. At least you will be creating your worlds, and be able to use them with more confidence later.

And at least you're exercising your writing muscle.