All The Short Stories I Couldn't Make Work (exposing my writing failures)

[@jst7772]

Hi Shaelin, Could you do a video about how to adjust story structures to fit short stories and flash fiction? Or how structure differs in these shorter works as there's not enough space for exposition and so forth.

[@catchawave21]

Recently took a novel start, carved, kneaded, pounded it into a decent short story. Nearly gave up, but now I can read it without wincing. Very satisfying.

[@PutBoxOnMe]

I have an idea for a book that means a lot to me and is so personal to me but I’ve never written a full book and I’ve had the biggest writing fry spell and anxiety for years. I’m just always terrified of starting something and feeling awful about what I write and it’s so discouraging and frustrating. I’m so tired of overthinking things but I don’t know how to get over that block. I’ve heard that writing a book can become easier after you finally write your first but I don’t even know how to navigate the first lol

[@sophied1703]

HORRIFICALLY RELATABLE

[@Katie_Jo_21]

Relatable.

[@Danteantonioedits]

(IN MY OPINION) One of the ways to get around this could be to step away from the first idea entirely, at least for a while. That personal connection can make it very difficult to commit to what you've written or make you worry about not writing something as good as you'd hoped. If you step away from this and do some "no stakes" writing exercises or pieces of flash fiction, it can be a way to practice your chops and get comfortable with the craft before taking on that idea. Alternatively, you could try just recording yourself telling the story out loud and slowly adding more detail, which might remove some of the anxiety connected to the actual writing.

[@Vickynger]

oh it absolutely does become easier once youve done it once. bc then youve proven to yourself you can do it and this annoying doubt in your head finally goes away.

[@davidbrown4053]

Write something terrible. You're gonna write a lot of bad stuff anyway, so go ahead and write something bad on purpose. Your creativity pipe is all clogged up, you've gotta get all the junk out of the bottom before the water is gonna flow freely. So push all the garbage out.

[@gregorykollarus8190]

I most definitely understand taking any little idea you have, and trying to turn it into a short story. It’s totally relatable but doesn’t always work. Thank you for sharing your experience. It was very validating.

[@o_o-lj1ym]

This is so relatable. Very often my short stories don’t work out, but hey it’s definitely a learning experience.

[@shebreathesingold8043]

Interesting video idea. I'm always obsessed by people's processes. Whether a story works or not, I love hearing the thought process behind a story and its execution.

[@Kaitaritz2013]

All these ideas sound so good and I love your titles!

[@prairiebutch]

oh this video is so real! also the closeted lesbian thing adhjdg yeah. all my early stories being about toxic straight relationships fr... I did the thing where I changed the main relationship in an old piece to be sapphic and it fully helped me rewrite it and actually feel good about putting it on submission haha

[@ShaelinWrites]

you have inspired me to go make all my old stories sapphic !!

[@prairiebutch]

nothing saves a dusty old story like lesbians@@ShaelinWrites

[@veganphilosopher1975]

Looking forward to reading some of these. I hate to see works as successes or failures. It's all part of the writer's journey

[@ShaelinWrites]

Thank you, I hope someday I can get some of these to a point where I'd be happy to publish hem! There are definitely a few in there I'd love to revisit

[@bishfish7726]

This story was so interesting, thanks for giving us insight!

[@Katie_Jo_21]

I needed this. I have been stuck in my head for 6 months as I started a story with a great and inspiring plot. But going from story board to even a first draft was a flop. 😞 I thought it was me. I often forget that this is not a single experience … 💕 🙏

[@alexelizondo7207]

I have thought about your story Anatomy since I first heard it. I wish so badly that I could read it

[@lianxie5582]

Fantastic video idea! Very helpful learning opportunities for everyone

[@Lara_Ameen]

I love all your short story titles! I don’t see KUDZU GIRLS on here, so I assume you’re still submitting it! I definitely hope you go back to work on some of these. I did a panel on writing short stories in June for WriteHive online and a lot of us talked about what you kind of touched on. How you don’t have to commit to an entire novel length idea so there’s more room to explore and sometimes we can’t figure out how to make certain ideas work. I made my traditional publishing debut this week (Oct 10th) with a YA thriller short story in an anthology and it was literally an idea I’ve had since 2019, that I tried to make work many times in a different genre and couldn’t get it to work until last year when it was accepted (as a pitch) for the anthology. So, I guess you never know! Awesome video! 💜

[@ShaelinWrites]

I actually stopped submitting KG several years ago because it was going nowhere in the submission slush, so I decided to just save it for my collection!

[@virginiaweir-hj1rt]

Dig the dingly -dangly earrings! LOL.

[@oneinathousand2156]

I’m kinda planning on writing a historical fiction short story based on something that happened to one of our relatives that’s been passed down for decades, and I had an idea of the basic outline of the plot based on what I thought I knew about the story; however, after I talked to my grandparents to get more details, I realized that I had gotten a lot of wrong information about it from other family members, so I have to restructure the whole thing, and I keep putting it off 😂

[@a-yam943]

All of the short stories I’ve written are terrible but my most recent one has such a good concept that I cannot do any justice

[@psuedo6083]

Will you ever revisit the Girl torturing the tree story? I am interested in reading The Reverse Lorax

[@blabbinglobster]

You never know - sometime in the future, you might find yourself returning to one of these stories. I recently had a story published that I first wrote 16 - yes sixteen - years ago. I could never quite make it work and every once in a while, I would return to it. I liked the concept, but I could never make the story work the way it needed to. I finally came up with a strong version almost two years ago.

[@AdamFishkin]

Your brain sounds like a pinball machine being played from the inside. From now on, drafting an especially unhinged concept will be referred to as "playing a game of Shaelin Ball". The way you describe "A Word That Rhymes with Fish Hook", if you can create a smooth enough transition into the apocalypse, the apocalypse itself can be slow and the robot can just continue observing ... maybe it mistakes detachment with empathy, but I'm just wild-guessing without knowing your robot's personality. I remember you talking about "Change for a Dollar" when it started, and your reservations about writing it were very clear. A lot of people overestimate autobiography; even in its fictional form it can make the most humble person come off as gratingly egotistic if it doesn't get pulled off juuuuuuuust right. (Though I sense that's not the problem you're referring to.) Bit of a tangent here: just realized that the décor on your bookshelf's left side is a lunar cycle. I don't know why that makes me happy. It just does.

[@ShaelinWrites]

"a pinball machine being played form the inside" is actually the most accurate description of how my brain works that I've ever heard.

[@MichaelJMetz]

27 Shots sounds like a fantastic idea.

[@LinikMolly2004]

I think I remember some of these from your tumblr updates 😂

[@b-6870]

Off-topic but your voice is so soothing.

[@AaronW-GArt]

I want to read all of these

[@jennalewis1247]

"I just kept conceptualizing short stories by putting together these really hyper-specific details and going, they'll click, it will all fit together, and then it wasn't." So you came to the same conclusion I did. Being that this is how you were trying to write short stories THEN, what is your process NOW? Do you still try to construct a story around hyper-specific details you collect, but maybe in a less forceful or cumulative way or do you have a more organic process, maybe starting from ideas that come within rather than those you pickup/collect from external sources.

[@ShaelinWrites]

It really depends on the story honestly - I usually let stories develop intuitively so it’s always a little different. When I first started writing short stories, a lot of them began as an image I’d then have to follow and unravel, whereas now it’s usually a situation or concept. I think the main difference is that at the time I was selecting all these hyper-specific details and trying to cram them together even if they didn’t have any natural magnetism, whereas now I just let those details emerge while writing, so it’s more intuitive and organic. I also wrote this way for many old stories as well, but there was a period of time after I’d graduated where I was really struggling to write short stories, and I kept taking this “smash a few really weird quirky details together” approach, I think because my more natural, intuitive approach wasn’t working at the time for some reason.

[@jennalewis1247]

Yes, I've done that trying to cram things together, too and it never works! We do this because we tend to be more amazed by the ideas of others. They feel shiny and new to us, while our own ideas always feel a bit commonplace even if we really love them. However, I've come to realize that other people will be really impressed/amazed with our ideas just as we are with the ideas of others. It's very strange. The first time I had someone gasp and say my book premise was insanely good and felt like something that would be a huge commercial hit my jaw just hit the floor because I'd lived with that idea for months and just didn't feel how incredible it was anymore. @@ShaelinWrites

[@RoseBookblood]

I remember all these stories and now I feel like a stalker lmao

[@african_chris]

Your videos. 👌🏼🙌🏼

[@billyalarie929]

SHAELIN BISHOP EU LETS GOOOOOOOOOO

[@maya-gur695]

Shaelin, thank you for uploading this video. I'm from Israel and I need the escapism during this extremely difficult time.

[@blabbinglobster]

My thoughts are with you every hour of the day. What can we do to help? Please let me know if there is anything we can do.❤🙏

[@maya-gur695]

Thank you so much for your comment. I tried to post a link, but KZbin deleted the comment. The organization Stand With US collects donations for the victims of the massacres in south Israel.

[@blabbinglobster]

@@maya-gur695 Thank you!

[@ShaelinWrites]

@blabbinglobster Hi, since you seem very empathetic and wanting to help people in need, I would highly highly recommend looking into causes that support Palestine (such as the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund) since Palestinians are the ones facing genocide and colonial oppression at the hands of the Israeli government. The website decolonizepalestine is a good introduction to the history of Israel's occupation of Palestine that also breaks down many common myths about the situation and debunks a lot of common pro-Israel propaganda. On this channel we support a Free Palestine!!

[@maya-gur695]

​@ShaelinWrites Shaelin, everyone in the country knows someone who has been murdered, kidnapped, or injured. Everyone. Hamas carried out multiple massacares. Whole communities were wiped out. They deliberately murdered Jewish babies, children and women. This is not decolonization. This is atrocious antisemitic violence. Know that from your home in Canada, you can never understand the situation right now. No matter how many Palestinian friends you have. I have been a subscriber for years. My whole country is grieving right now. Your lack of empathy really shows if this is all you have to say when I leave a comment like this.

[@SillverBel]

Hold up... Lung sounds incredibly interesting. A character made of air??? That sounds so fun. If you do end up revisiting this story but gay, please let us know.

[@ShaelinWrites]

I hadn’t thought about the story in years, but after talking about it for this video I’d really like to revisit it (gay edition)!

[@iiiiitsmagreta1240]

That concept but sapphic sounds deliciously haunting.

[@trinity3272]

But aren’t these in paradolia?

[@ShaelinWrites]

Some of these I’d originally planned to put in Pareidolia, but ended up cutting them from the book because I couldn’t get them to work

[@trinity3272]

@@ShaelinWrites ahh I understand now

[@Thagomizer]

What do you mean by a problematic portrayal of heterosexuality? What you described sounds like the common relationship messes that young people often find themselves in.

[@ShaelinWrites]

It was ✨a joke✨