INTRODUCING THE 800 WORD STORY

Author Eden Baylee and I have produced eleven stories together since January 2015. All of them were written for R.B. Wood’s Word Count Podcast.  When the podcast ended in November 2020 after ten years,  we wondered about the future of our co-authorship. Did we still want to write together?

We’re both happy to say the answer is YES!

As per our previous collaborations, we’ll construct a story in four parts, taking turns to write the opening, then alternating between the other three parts. If you want a more detailed explanation of the process, you’ll find it in a previous blog.

To make it even more challenging, we’ve added the following parameters:

(1) Each part will be 200 words. The entire story will therefore be 800 words with an allowance of +/- five words (title excluded).
(2) Whoever starts the story comes up with the title.
(3) The story genre will (loosely) be: Suspense/Mystery/Thriller with a psychological bent and twist ending.
(4) A new story will be posted simultaneously on our respective blogs every month.

The prompt for each story will be taken from Eden’s Writer’s Toolbox—a gift her husband, John, gave her years ago. To help us preserve the random nature of our stories as much as possible, John will be choosing the prompts.

 

Of course, every new venture deserves a great logo to kick it off. What do you think?

Many thanks to JB Graphics for the fabulous design.

Stay tuned for our first story coming soon!

 

6 comments

  1. Sounds like something I did with Tim Lebbon many years ago… ours ended up rather longer than 800 words and turned into a horror/sf novella that was eventually published by a small US press . It’s the only time I’ve collaborated with another author, and I remember it being really fun at the time.

    1. Thanks, Katherine, for such encouraging words and for sharing the outcome of your experience with Tim. All very encouraging (although my collaborations with Eden so far have been lots of fun and I’ve learned a lot from them – so that’s an ongoing reward).

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