I’m sliding into week two of a microfiction course that I thought would bring me endless blog energy. It has not. In truth it has inspired almost no writing thus far. I have to allow for the fact that my mind is locked into novel mode. This could be a reason why the writing is not flowing in all directions. Quite a lot of energy is being directed towards turning a bush into a bonsai.
At the end of that activity I expect there is going to be a flurry of writing in all directions as I move back into two other novel projects, a Shadowrun sourcebook, and perhaps another punk-esque project I can only hope still has wordcount by the time I am done with the novel. In the meanwhile the key appears to be pacing myself to write this at a regular rate while reading through a flurry of microfiction that will, eventually, trigger interest in operating in said genre.
I have written microfiction. Every chapter lead in I’ve written is a form of microfiction, though these haven’t been very good. I was hoping that understanding the bones of the system would teach me how to write them for the genre and for other genres–including smaller pieces as part of the thesis novel I am working on (or plan to be shortly). Micro is about creating a meaningful impression of a story, and I am learning exactly what that means through a multitude of examples. I intend to try more of it as the class goes on, and hopefully some of that will happen in these ten minute bursts.
It just hasn’t really happen yet.