Being a discovery writer (not a plotter) is such a weird thing, I don't think I'll ever get used to. It's also something that's almost impossible to give advice about. There's an anthology I really want to be a part of so this morning I started writing a short story. The theme was Christmas horror. That's it. I couldn't think of anything. I was fairly confident I had nothing in the tank for this. But I decided to roll the dice and trust myself, so I opened a new document and started typing a name. Then just started casually talking about him as an opening paragraph, hoping that like push-starting an old car, the engine would just turn over and kick into gear and a story would magically happen, even though I had nothing. Nothing. Next thing I know, (long meal breaks not withstanding) I'm 3.5k words in and I'm so intrigued by this tale, that I kind of want to stop, go lie down and watch to see how this film ends. But the only way I'm going to fi...
Short Stories by Barend Nieuwstraten III