Kee asked a while back about what constitutes a short story. Practically speaking, I believe the word count ranges from 1,000 to 10,000 words. Looking at an old (and too-short) version of my Godred story, it was 2418 words according to the counter on MS Word.

Looked at plot-wise, a short story is typically a single event. I’ve heard the explanation that a novel covers a period of a character’s life, while a short story covers an episode in his or her life.

But in the process of wrestling with my Godred story, I’ve come to realize that, just like for a novel, you have to know your character’s past to know who he (I say this with Godred in mind) is now, and how he got to be in this situation, and how he is going to handle it. You just don’t get to tell all this stuff you know.

I am afraid that I haven’t dealt enough with Godred’s past, so every time I work on the (new) beginning of my story, I realize the next day that it won’t work exactly because of X, Y, or Z that I just figured out about his past. *facepalm*

This time I think I have it all sorted out—who he is and why. So I hope to (re)write the first scene tonight at bedtime. Seems that’s my best writing time. So cross your fingers for me that it works this time!