The Long and the Short of it

I find myself continually amazed by the things we are capable of once we stop believing we can't do them.

I never used to write novellas. I couldn't write short stories either. Things would start out nice and short and simple and then suddenly there would be subplots on my subplots and I'd be scrambling to tie up my loose ends by the end of the first 100,000 words. I did this for years. And somewhere along the way, I got it into my head that I couldn't write short.

Then a funny thing happened. I decided, I don't even remember why, that I wanted to give the novella thing a shot. See if I could follow the K.I.S.S. rule and get a baby-book out of it. (Not a book about babies, a baby-sized book.) With a case of temporary amnesia regarding the fact that I couldn't, I sat down and just did it. (Very Nike of me, eh?) Then it sold. Then I panicked. I'd never done anything like that before! It was a length I didn't write, a genre I didn't write, and that was what sold? Are you kidding me?

When it came time to do a follow-up, I wrote a full length book. Back to my comfort zone. But I finished it early. And I had a few weeks before I wanted to start my next Big Book, so I randomly started typing away at this mini-novella (let's call it a novellita, shall we?) and then boom! I had another one. Then, last month in a fit of procrastination, I wrote another one. All of a sudden, I am a novella writing machine.

A year ago, I probably would have had a good laugh if you'd told me I would be writing a Valentine's free-read of less than 4,000 words - not because I have anything against freebies, but because I was so certain I couldn't write short. But that's exactly what I'm doing.

So what can you do that you haven't given yourself credit for? Don't sell yourself short, or you might just miss out on the opportunity to sell something short.