Ask the Author: Mark Paxson
Answered Questions (3)
Mark Paxson
The one I'm working on the most came to me this way. A writing prompt: a sales clerk catches a shoplifter and offers him or her a deal in exchange for letting him or her go. I turned that into a short story of about 2,000 words when I realized that there was far more story to tell. I completed a 30,000 word novella from that idea -- in which the story is told in first person from the perspective of three different characters. Once I finished it and my son read the entire thing in one night, I realized that there was yet more story to tell. So, now I'm writing a second 30,000 word novella that carries the story forward through another year. With the same three characters and a fourth added in -- with chapters shifting back and forth between the characters from first person perspective.
Mark Paxson
Write the stories you want to write the way you want to write them.
Mark Paxson
At the moment very well. For ten years, I really didn't have it. Wrote two novels, dozens of short stories. I always seemed to have ideas and the ability to write them. Now, I'm stuck. Three half completed novels and no ability to make progress on them. And no ideas for any short stories either. Got any ideas?
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