Childrens Cli-Fi Short Story

2021-12-13 Update: I indie-published this short story as 65 Oak Street, Belfast.

The 2019 post below remains as written.

Short Story Writer’s Journal (Might contain spoilers)

I did not set out to write a children’s story. A story where the main character is just nine years old. But that’s what happened.

As with story #9, it took way longer than one week to complete - closing in on three weeks. And that sort of snail’s pace will scupper the 52 in 52 challenge.

My craft goal with this story was to practice a number of techniques for transitioning between scenes.

The tale started out about the inner life of trees and then evolved to enable a young girl to become the PoV character. These structural changes happened because I allowed the story to emerge and just followed the flow of words. I probably wrote past the ending too because it came in at nearly 5600 words, the longest short I’ve penned to date.

I’m not going to say much more here because I may also submit it to a paying market.

But first I’ll send it to a professional writer for a kind of critique, which I am looking forward to reading in a darkened room with a blindfold on haha.

Is it science fiction? Perhaps, since there is one key element in the story that requires an emerging technology to be maybe another ten to twenty years further along than where it is today in 2019. Does that make it speculative fiction? Could be, but then what do I know!

Onward to story #11.

A summary listing of all short stories in this challenge can be found by clicking 52-in-52.)