Why I stopped writing things I don't enjoy

Or: Why short stories never clicked for me

From @bren:

Ever write short stories? I’m trying them out for Nano this year and they’re coming out a bit of a hot mess 🤔

Bren: First off, my apologies for not answering you during NaNoWriMo when this might have helped you. As you know, life really hit me hard the last fifteen months—especially in the last six because I have so many books due back to back.

It’s been intense.

But The Whispering Night is finally finished and off to production, and so here I am, hoping I can ease back into the newsletter!

Second off, I hope what I do share can help you now—or maybe anyone else on the struggle bus like me with short stories.

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In 2021, I created a Story A Month Challenge because I was determined to get better at writing short stories. I figured, if I made myself write a short story every month, surely by the end of the year, I would be better at them. Or at the very least, I’d be more comfortable with the format.

Unfortunately, the experiment failed.

(For me, anyways, but certainly not for other writers! I know at least a handful of people who published the short stories they wrote during the challenge.)

Because I was hosting this challenge—and I really did want to develop this skill—I dutifully made myself write a short story each month. I was so certain that it would get easier the more I sat down to write!

But it simply didn’t. If anything, it got harder because I would spend weeks and weeks on a story…only to realize my month was up, and oh no, not only was I not finished with this story, but I hadn’t written nearly enough in my contracted novels either! 😵‍💫

The reality is: after a year, I never got comfortable with short stories.

And the reality is: that’s okay.