Editor’s note: Apologies to Aubrey, Beth, and all their readers. I (the person in charge of when things go up) took a mental holiday on Sunday and didn’t double check the scheduling, so Aubrey and Beth are switched!  Enjoy Beth’s piece, then tune in on Wednesday for Aubrey Hirsch’s usual First Mondays column, “Using Your Writing Skills IRL.” –Gay Degani

by Beth Cato

I didn’t start out as a short story writer. From the time I was a kid, the goal was to be a novelist. When I began to take this goal seriously as an adult, one thing became painfully clear: my novel sucked. I revised, but eventually I had to concede defeat and move on to the next project.

That novel sucked, too.

I wanted to be a successful writer. I wanted my queries to garner more than a form rejection. I wanted a literary agent and a contract and a cover with my name on it. That meant I had to make some changes in my writing process. Therefore, I needed to stop writing 100,000-word stories that didn’t work. I needed to start small and hone my craft.

That is when I discovered flash fiction.

The tightness of flash fiction is what is mimicked in a novel, times one thousand. Every word must carry a purpose. Pacing is crucial. I recognized this, even if I couldn’t replicate it. So I began to read various flash fiction zines and practice my own craft in 500 or 1,000 word chunks.

With my lame novel attempts, I had enjoyed the freedom of verbosity. I babbled. I let my descriptions flow. Flash fiction taught me that the adverbs must be the first to die, and a single sentence of description can say more than a paragraph. The delete key became the most powerful button on my keyboard. It was humbling to find out that when I had to trim a 1,300-word story to under a thousand, I didn’t miss those deleted words. Neither did anyone else.

I applied those same skills to my next novel draft. I worked on the manuscript in flash-like pieces by breaking it into chapters, scenes, and specific pages; this enabled me to stay sane (mostly) as I worked my way through. My critique group kept me humble and focused. I revised. At last, I had a novel that didn’t suck.

In March of this year, that little book caught the eye of a literary agent. I’m now on my way towards that big lifetime goal of being a published novelist.

I also continue to write flash fiction.

My brain needs those little breaks as I work on larger projects. It’s how I made it to this point, and I am happy to say it’s become a habit. I have fallen in love with the short-short story. It’s an art form, but it’s also a constant reminder of how I should write regardless of the word limit: tight and smooth, with my delete key working overtime.

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Beth Cato is an associate member of the SFWA. She’s been published in Daily Science Fiction, Every Day Fiction, The Pedestal Magazine, Mountain Magic: Spellbinding Tales of Appalachia from Woodland Press, and several Chicken Soup for the Soul books. For more information, visit www.bethcato.com.