On the 7th of every month over on my Patreon page, patrons can expect to find a new short story that’s around 3,000 words in length. These stories are centered around a character they voted on during the previous month. Writing these (alongside Book 4) has been a very educational experience, and after having five of them under my belt I felt it was a good time to write a blog post about what I’ve learned.

Short story writing is something I had never really done before, but I’m beginning to see it as a key asset in developing as a writer. Repeating the entire process of outlining, writing and editing these short pieces has proven to be a fun challenge. They’ve also helped me develop the world of Hyuga, in many ways forcing me to answer questions and develop characters that will become big factors as the main story unfolds!

The Stories
The stories themselves are written in third-person perspective, which is different than the first-person I use for Samurai of Hyuga. Because of this, I wasn’t able to make use of internal monologue, and the ‘tone’ of the narrator isn’t nearly as strong as it is in the main story. This makes it more difficult to make detailing objects or describing scenes feel as interesting as the dialogue. Injecting that ‘energy’ without the aid of a strong narrative voice turned out to be a good training exercise!

The following are the side stories I’ve written so far. Warning: Book 3 spoilers below!

Hatch’s Harem:
• Mainstory tie-in: It was referenced that General Shatao had concubines.
• Worldbuilding: Explains how the Tanimura Champions broke apart after Ige’s death
• Genre/Genre Potential: Harem Anime
• The scene idea that prompted me to write this: Hatch having to keep his face and identity hidden while in a compromising position.

Masami/Masashi’s First Day:
• Mainstory tie-in: The mind-reading ring used by Sadao Hamasaki in shogi matches.
• Worldbuilding: Details the Academy for shugenja
• Genre/Genre Potential: School Life
• The scene idea that prompted me to write this: The kid getting picked on for being a rich, know-it-all genius by their classmates.

Toshie/Toshio’s Dancing Bear:
• Mainstory tie-in: The Kondo couple, Yori and Hiroyuki, leave the Capital to Tonogasha
• Worldbuilding: Details the Hyugan circus and Kondo-Hyugan relations
• Genre/Genre Potential: Mystery
• The scene idea that prompted me to write this: The brutal-to-gentle scene transition from Tosh forcing out a confession right into massaging the Emperor.

Kohaku’s Ranch:
• Mainstory tie-in: Shows Kohaku’s skill with horses and why her/his family is sworn to General Shatao
• Worldbuilding: Establishes the ‘Westlands’ region and its culture
• Genre/Genre Potential: Western
• The scene idea that prompted me to write this: Kohaku being tricked into a prospective marriage get-together by her/his mother.

Momoko’s Clinic:
• Mainstory tie-in: Opium use in Jijinto, MC killed the head of the Yamagata-gumi back when he/she worked as an assassin
• Worldbuilding: Details the use of medicine in Hyuga
• Genre/Genre Potential: Medical Drama
• The scene idea that prompted me to write this: Momoko working at a clinic while getting hit on by a male patient.

Takeaway #1: Saying Without Talking
Writing fiction under a word limitation is something I’ve never had to do before. And as a result, I used to write out EVERY bit of dialogue that was spoken, even ‘hello’s and other pleasantries of little significance. That was until I had to fit Toshie/Toshio’s mystery investigation in around 3,000 words. I didn’t have time to shoot the breeze, and so I learned how to make characters talk without quotations. Here’s what I mean:

Most Hyugans had never seen a bear before, let alone seen one attack a human. But Kondos were another matter. Toshio’s heritage held close ties with the large beast, who remained prevalent in their lore and traditions. More practically, he knew how they fought. And this furry culprit didn’t attack like any bear Toshio had ever heard of.

“Just so we’re clear,” Toshio repeated, “it ran over to you, jumped on its hind legs, and slashed you in an upwards motion. It then promptly escaped. Is that correct?”

Unfortunately it was, according to the ringmaster and his wife. But bears were grabbers and chewers—they pulled you in with a ‘bear hug’ and went for your neck, like every other predator in the animal kingdom.

 

There’s two pieces of unspoken-but-inferred dialogue here: the first being an explanation of the bear attack. By having Tosh ‘repeat’ what happened, we can assume the ringmaster and his wife already said it once. The second is them agreeing with Tosh’s testimony. They do it–but with narration, not dialogue. This ends up making for a quick paced, word-efficient conversation that keeps the energy rolling as the investigation continues!

Takeaway #2: Start to Finish
Being tasked with smaller writing projects helped me get a better idea of my creation process as a whole. In a novel, I only ‘start’ and ‘end’ a story about once a year or so. With the short stories, I gain experience with starting and ending a story every month. That helps make the two most difficult and delicate parts of storywriting much less scary!

Here’s my creative process:
• First: I form a list of scenes I want to write, the sort of stuff that gets me up in the morning to start typing in the first place. These are rarely fully-thought out ideas, but they are what I find inherently interesting.
• Second: I stick those scenes (or parts of them) into a basic, premise line structure (Character -> Constriction, Desire -> Relationship, Resistance -> Adventure, Adventure -> Change). This is how I create the conflict and resolution in the story.
• Third: I hammer out the scene breaks (chapters).
• Four: I write it all up.
• Five: I edit it all up.

Takeaway #3: Completion
If you only write novels that are 200,000 words or greater, then you aren’t going to be completing very many stories. That kind of sucks, because your ultimate goalposts will usually be months into the future. Sure every chapter is a victory, but you can’t hang a chapter on the wall, smile at it and then forget it exists. There’s a very real mental benefit to completing a project, one that boosts your confidence and helps remind you that you can and will get the job done!

For anyone lost inside long-term projects: don’t be afraid to tackle smaller ones with clear end goals in mind. Completing short-term projects is a great source of morale when you need it most!

The Future
Eventually the tie-in’s from the source material will dry out for these side stories. It’s inevitable when I’m making one of these every month, but that’s why it’s important to establish a ‘set up’ for future side stories. For example: Masami/Masashi’s stories are set up to be a “slice-of-life” at a magic school, and the goal of each ‘episode’ is to make a new friend. You can imagine just how different it is to write a story like that as opposed to Samurai of Hyuga.

I consider that and the rest of these side stories as a breath of fresh air, that not only makes my writing better–it makes it more fun!