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I’m not sure yet, but I may have actually managed to write a genuine short story. I wrapped up the first draft my baseball-centered story this morning, and while I’m not sure yet, I think it may be the shortest thing I’ve done yet (except for “The City of Dead Works”, which exists in the archives here — see “Notable Dispatches” at left). Last night I was thinking about how to make the transition into the story’s ending, when I realized that a transition wasn’t actually necessary. I just went right into the ending, then and there. I can’t do a word-count until I actually type the thing — I do all first drafts in longhand, remember — but I’m very sure it’s my new record for shortness. I’m expecting a word-count of around 7000 words. For me, that’s brevity.

(A secondary hope of mine as I spend a month reading short fiction, as opposed to novels, is that I’ll finally recalibrate myself so as to actually be able to tell a story in less than 10,000 words.)

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