ANATOMY OF A SHORT STORY By Linda Mitchelmore

As followers of this blog will know, I am a huge fan of the short story - reading them, and writing them. But sometimes it becomes - as so many things we usually enjoy can - a bit of a chore. We wonder why we do it - especially when there can be many rejections along with the acceptances. Does anyone read the stories in Woman's Weekly, The People's Friend, My Weekly,and the various anthologies in which my stories have appeared? How do we keep on the straight and narrow of turning up for writing group weekly when the weather is nice/friends are stopping over/we plain don't feel like pitching up? Where, I often wonder, am I going to find yet another original take on something that will catch an editor's eye? So, today ..... very wet, very windy, very dark, and not conducive at all to writing fiction ... I was in the doldrums somewhat. So I nipped into town and came back to find .... a fan letter waiting for me, redirected by Woman's Weekly. And suddenly it all seems worthwhile.

So, this particular story that a lovely lady called Wendy Forrester took the time and trouble to write to me about. I've mentioned my writing group which meets weekly, apart from in June, July, and August when we meet monthly. We are a very small group - just a dozen of us. We take it in turns to be in the chair and take the meeting and choose a theme for homework should anyone need a bit of a jog to write something. The following photo is of me with Kate Furnivall and Carole Llewellyn giving a talk in Brixham Library. Carole is in Spain now but still feels very much part of the group.

So, it was Catherine Billing who chose the theme for this particular story - IN ANOTHER LIFE I don't usually write fantasy but this theme seemed to cry out for it. In this particular story my heroine is reminiscing about how wonderful her children look when they are in bed asleep. I can equate with that because I have children - now grown up - and I must have spent hours just standing gazing at them sleeping.

And, at the time of writing this particular story, I'd made a batch of chocolate brownie for my grandchildren who were going to be stopping with me.

So, all that went in. Some of what I wrote was pure fiction, a product of my often very over-active imagination, but some of it was also the product of things around me. So, the day might not have started well but just one very short but most very welcome fan letter has thrilled me beyond belief and motivated me ....hmmm, I feel the anatomy of a new short story beginning to emerge.