Trying out something new

In my researches, I've discovered that a lot of magazines are publishing what are called "short shorts," stories that average 1,000-3,000 words. This was a bit distressing to me, since as I mentioned earlier, my short stories are more in the 10,000-15,000 word range. I've found a few magazines that publish stories in that range, and I've ordered copies so that I can give them a look to see if I feel my stories would fit.

At the same time, I've been thinking about working on a couple stories that are under 5,000 words. The story posted on this blog, "To Whom it May Concern," is about 2,000 words, so I know I'm not such a snob that I think my stories can't possibly be told in less than 10,000 words. I'm even considering sending "To Whom it May Concern" out to some magazines, once I figure out exactly what kind of genre it'd fit into. My biggest problem with the story is its title. It feels like such a cop-out. But then, I understand editors like changing the titles of stories, so I'm not that worried about it.

I've had an idea for a story banging around in my head for a while now that I think I'd be able to write in a couple thousand words. My tentative title for it is "Carte Blanche." It's the kind of story they used to do on like The Twilight Zone, or The Outer Limits. It's a piece of speculative fiction, one of those near-future dystopian settings kind of stories. I spent a long time last night lying in bed thinking about it, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized it'd be perfect for a short. So on top of researching magazines, shopping my stories around, and getting my collection of rejection slips started, I'm going to be working on that story. It'll certainly give me a lot more publications to send it out to.

-E. Maxfield Moen