And the 3rd contestant is...

I now have three up and running contenders for my next book!

This won't be a sequel to Swan Song, I've made that pretty clear, but in the course of my short story collection, so much has inspired me that man, I can't nail it all down!

Three ideas are vying for my affections for my second book, technically; my first feature length novel sized story, even a conversation with my wife about the nature of horror films has helped!

So as it currently stands, I need to finish one story for the collection and then I have three already begun ideas for my next book.

And I CAN'T WAIT!

The truth is these ideas are so big in scope, they may take up all my spare time! It's exciting as hell! Ever feel swallowed by your concepts? Daunted by them? Thrilling isn't it?

I'm bad at research. I always have been.

My stories are kept close to my heart, my core, grounded in a reality only I understand. These ideas will test me, push me. I think I need to do that at this point in my writing life. I still adhere to the tried old and tested belief that a story can be small in scope yet epic in moral and message. Usually, those are the most effective (think The Shawshank Redemption, or the incredibly underrated Unbreakable, which I love!) but I do think it's time to push the boat out, as it were.

I just hope I don't come apart at the seams!

Hell, I'll just throw in some hokey jokes and a shocking scene or two to patch up the gaps.

(Joke! That was a joke people!)

Waffling On

Short stories rock.

Short, sharp shocks that require no real commitment to read.

So how come recently every time I start a short story, the bastard grows legs and develops into a fully fledged monster that 6 A4 pages won't do justice?

The problem in the beginning was finding ideas that went somewhere.

Now the problem is every story WANTS to go somewhere and take me along for the ride!

Four times in the last two months, I have started work on what I intended to be the last short story that would complete the 12 story collection that will pad out the paperback edition of Swan Song (yes, that old chestnut again, bite me), and every time, the story mutates into something that 6 to 8 pages of material couldn't possibly contain.

So what do I do?

Chop the legs off a running beauty of a story and prematurely bring about it's demise so I can include in a paperback collection? Or start from scratch with an idea that hopefully won't grow a further head?

I'm actually asking!

In truth, and I wasn't going to admit this, I went back and looked into my older work, stuff that NO ONE has ever seen, and pulled a bit of material from it in order to further my collection.

Problem is each idea that frustrated me then blossoms into an uncontrollable flower the minute I put pen to page, or fingertip to key. I can't keep these bastard stories short anymore.

Is it time to write a follow up to 'War And Peace?'

With vampires?

Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?