Now that I may (or may not) have the S.E.N. almost under control, I'm contemplating what I'm going to do next. (It's amazing the things I'll do to avoid writing, isn't it?)

I may go back to political blogging. It was easier and more rewarding than writing fiction. Someone else wrote the stories. All I had to do was stand on the sidelines and complain. Whining is something I can do.

On the other hand...when you're writing fiction and something ghastly happens, you can just use the delete key and undo it. There are advantages to that kind of world. ("Major advantages," she mumbles, glancing at the headlines describing the 12,000 soldiers currently invading Fallujah.)

Yes...I might write some more fiction. Maybe a series of hommages to some of my favorite writers?

(I should note at this point that my favorite writers aren't Hemmingway, Joyce, and wossname, that Grapes of Wrath guy, can't remember his name at the moment.)

Or, you know, not. Because copying someone else isn't usually successful. (Except for everything I copied from Mallory, which is pretty much everything I have to offer, but she's exceptional in so many ways)

Perhaps it's time I started developing an Authorial Voice? There are people whose writing is unmistakable...people I'd know in a different fandom under a new pseudonym pretending to be from a different country. I might like to be that recognizable.

It's not a matter of quality. There are some authors who write very well indeed but whose personal styles still aren't instantly recognizable. (And, of course, there are authors whose writing is instantly recognizable because it sucks in the same way in any genre, under any name, but we're not considering them today.)

Or I could turn my attention to a new form.

I have an idea for a series of Literary* and Erudite Short Stories that might be interesting to dabble with. No more novel(la)-length stories, no. And no PWPs. I've written a million of them and I don't think there's much of interest left in that format. But Literary and Erudite Short Stories, maybe those would work for me. A bit of substance contained in a lot fewer pages so the pain is over quicker...I might enjoy that.

A series of L.E.S.S., that could be challenging. I'd need to come up with some structural rules and stuff. (None of that just sitting down to write, without a plan. It's a hobby...it's supposed to be painful, right?)

As far as that goes, I have possible story ideas for three or four already. Just vague ideas, nothing concrete you understand, but enough to start my brain working on the concept.

Who knows? L.E.S.S. might catch on. I could be a trend-setter! The next thing you know, everyone is writing L.E.S.S., and crediting me with the idea.

(There are many authors in fandom who should write L.E.S.S. and I'd be delighted to be cited as the inspiration, should they decide to do so.)

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* It's torch's fault. She wrote Wodehouse and I've had a burning desire to write something in that style ever since. Or maybe Jerome K. Jerome.