THIS BLOG WAS SUPPOSED TO BE POSTED IN MAY. IT CONTAINS OLD TOPICS, BUT I STILL WANTED TO POST IT
I want to talk about my recently posted short story: Blue March.
My First Ever Short Story?
I wrote it two months ago—on March 2nd, to be exact. A server I'm a member of has monthly contests which always vary. This time, I had to choose between ten prompts, each of them having a few pictures. None of them caught my eye. I wasn't experienced in any of the genres they represented and I wasn't attracted to them. But I felt the need to participate, so I kept looking at the pictures for a while longer until something clicked in my head. They were these pictures:
Why? I'm not exactly sure. About the hand wrapped in blue flames, I guess it's because of the colors, but there's also something mystical about it, just like the picture of the tree. I've always loved that setting, an unending ocean with something standing alone on it. All of it representing a peaceful emptiness.
Back to normal. Now that I had these images in my mind, it was time to write. Sadly, I don't remember the word limit, but I think it was a minimum of 2,000 and a maximum of 5,000.
Here came the next challenge. Writing an impactful story in so few words. CTCT is a long novel, only having about 40% of its content posted. Each of its chapters is around 2,000 words. Now, I had to write an introduction, a climax, and an ending in the same span. It was an entirely different mindset.
Now that I'm writing this blog, I realized that Blue March is not my first short story. It was The City of the Seventeen Kites, a story I posted in 2019—exactly two years ago. I deleted its chapters, so you won't be able to read it, but I'm planning to rewrite it in the near future.
After reading a couple of articles about writing short stories, I realized I just had to go for it or I would never write it, so I did that.
As I wrote it, the story came to my head. My only plan was to make it metaphorical and sad. With that in mind, my mood adjusted and I let my brain do the rest. Two days later, it was done. Reading it after finishing it, I thought it was good. Since it was a writing contest, I didn't ask for any editing, and simply submitted it after a few corrections.
Then I had to wait. I didn't know if I was permitted to post it before the winners were announced, so I asked. I didn't get a clear answer, but I assumed I shouldn't make it public.
Two months later, the announcement arrived. I won 2nd place. I was very happy about it and the feedback I got was very helpful.
After improving it with that feedback and the great editing of RedPandaChick, I finally posted it. It doesn't have many views yet, but I'm trying my best to get them. Even with the few views, the reviews have been very positive, so I'm happy about it.
Last but not least, I translated it into Spanish and posted it on Wattpad. I've already shared my opinions on Wattpad, one of them being that my stories are not made for that platform. However, I think it is of the biggest platforms with a community in Spanish.
Thanks for reading!
