write a short story.

I haven’t written a short story in years. Back when I used to try my hand at them (mostly in high school) I rarely seemed able to finish them, anyway. The idea would always get more grandiose in my mind and the story and my time constraints (such as a deadline for a creative writing workshop) wouldn’t be able to contain it; I became overwhelmed and frustrated, and I gave up. My files are now crammed with such unfinished short stories, followed by unfinished poem sequences, and, most recently, a half-written novel. My hope is that if I can teach myself to crank out some tight, succinct short stories in the next month or twp maybe it will give me the confidence I need to finally break the curse of my many unfinished works. I think it’s more manageable than jumping right back into the unfinished novel (or some other new novel), and I have hopes that it may be fun.