The lean story

Although I didn't start out, or even plan, on publishing short stories, I think doing so has helped me with my overall approach to writing.

You see, in a short story, especially an erotic short story, you need to characterize in very few words. Let's face it, erotic shorts are all about the encounter. Okay find, enough with the euphemism, they're mostly about the sex. They have to be, but they aren't porn. In other words, the reader needs to be invested in the characters. They're not faceless people having sex. You care about them. It's my job to draw the reader in using very few words and if I haven't made the reader have an emotional connection with my characters, then I haven't done my job.

Translate that into a full length or even novella length story. Here I have room to spread out, to explore characters in more depth, however, the techniques that I've used in writing my shorts are priceless. I've lost my tendency to be wordy. My sentences are cleaner, they cut to the chase more succinctly without falling short of detail.

All in all, because I've learned to cut out the chaff, even when I have a longer story to tell, even in rough draft, I tell it more efficiently. Less fluff, more muscle.

My newest ms is still going to need a lot of editing, but it's nice to be able to look back and notice an improvement in my writing.

How has your writing changed over the years?