Nicole J Simms/ June 12, 2021/ Blog/ 0 comments

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My New Plan — A June 2021 Writing Update

Wow, it’s been ages since I wrote a post. I wish I could say I’ve been busy taking over the world, but I haven’t. However, I have been busy.

So, what have I been up to? Well, I’ve spent two months of quarter two being indecisive. Why? Well, let me start from the beginning.

Once upon a time … ha-ha! Okay, I’m just messing, but I do want to take you back to 2017, so let’s jump in the time machine and go back, back in time.

In 2017, I was feeling confident about my flash fiction skills, so I decided to self-publish a novella-length flash fiction collection of horror stories.

I spent months writing 30,000 words worth of flash fictions—I ended up with 52 of them—and then I started editing the stories with plans to publish.

Let’s jump back in the time machine and return to early 2021. After spending years saying I planned to edit and publish my collection (and publishing my free collections instead), I was still nowhere near ready to publish it, so I decided that 2021 would be the year I published the collection.

I aimed to publish end of April, but April neared, and I still wasn’t ready, so I pushed back the date by a month, and with each push back, my anxiety rose, and I was still nowhere near ready. For some reason, I couldn’t find the motivation to edit the collection.

Then May came, and I was struggling to figure out why I was neglecting my collection. Then the answer came to me: I didn’t want to do it.

I realised that instead of collecting flash fictions that I was proud of, I rapidly wrote several that were just filler. Only some of the flash fictions hit the spot the way flash fiction should. So I made a tough decision: I put the flash fiction collection aside.

So, what am I working on now? Well, I’ve decided to write and publish a series of novella-in-flash books.

What’s a novella-in-flash? It’s a novella-length (a story between 17,500 to 40,000 words) story that is made up of flash fictions. Each flash fiction should work as a standalone story, but together they should form a complete story.

After discovering this story form, I looked for a novella-in-flash in one of the genres I write (horror/fantasy/crime) and found one called Gold Fury, which is a crime story—I’ll talk about this book in a future post. I’ve learned a lot about the form from reading this book, and I can’t wait to get started.

My goal is to write three books in the series, which will all be ghost horror stories. Each novella-in-flash will be a standalone story, but there will be cameo appearances from characters in the other books.

So that’s the plan. I’m aiming to publish book one of the series in the autumn and possibly book two, but I’ll keep you all posted.

Oh, before I go, here’s a photo of my new task board, and I’ve already taken one task down. Yay me!

My Task Board - Set Up for June

Right, I now need to get back to setting up this newsletter, so I’ll speak to you all soon.

Have you heard of a novella-in-flash before? Is it something you would like to write and/or read? Let me know in the comments below.

Stay safe and keep writing, folks!

Don’t forget, you can follow me on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Goodreads or like my Facebook page.

You can also join my Facebook groups: Setting Self-Doubt on Fire Squad, which is for writers; and The Nicole J. Simms Squad, which is for readers who enjoy my stories and want a sneak peek into what I’m working on before anyone else.

Also, I’ve also created a Nicole J Simms YouTube channel. On my channel, I will be sharing videos of my performances, trips, writing group adventures and my stories.

And, you can also download my e-books Merry Dreadmas for FREE, so check it out.

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