Never Say Never

Monday, March 21, 2016

NEVER SAY NEVER

                

                                                     

I remember thinking that I was never going to write a short story because I didn’t really like short stories, but as we all know sometimes never doesn’t really mean never, at least not for me.

I challenged myself to see if I could write a short sexy story which I did, EVERY MAN WANTS HER, taken from a screenplay I had written years ago. The surprise for me was readers loved my character Virginia Templeton, and I actually became quite fond of her. I liked her because she did whatever she wanted and I found myself becoming a much more confident writer and person. For those of you who have read my stories I know you will understand what I mean. Virginia was everything I wasn’t but that isn’t true anymore.

Then, taking another plunge, I wrote a second short story also about Virginia Templeton, IT’S NEVER ENOUGH, and then another, STEPPING UP HER GAME.

 

By this time I began to really understand Virginia Templeton and wrote a blog for her, made a Pinterest board about her as well as a Facebook page. I was having such a great time I decided to put all three stories together. The book was called, THE VIRGINIA TEMPLETON STORIES.

Shortly after all three stories were done I began to think I made a mistake. I didn’t realize readers wouldn’t be happy when they finished the stories because they thought the book was a novel.

However, what shocked me most of all was they weren’t satisfied with the ending because I assumed each story had a beginning, middle and end, which they did. That’s when I realized that was a good thing. They liked my character and wanted more.

Why I didn’t realize that was because as some writers do I doubted my own ability and was certain they had enough of Virginia Templeton. It was because of a short review of my stories that a very honest reader wrote I began to turn this all around and understand what had happened.

By now you’re probably wondering why I posted this. I wanted to explain to writers that sometimes we are too tough on ourselves. Write the best story you can and you will find your audience. If you’re lucky enough to have readers wanting more you have done your job, just finish what you start.

Virginia Templeton will be back and I want to thank all the readers that wanted to know more about Virginia for convincing me to bring her back, as well as some of the other characters in the stories. The most fascinating part of this journey for me was that I probably won’t say I’ll never do something because I damn well know that might not be true for me or my characters.   

Marsha Casper Cook

Posted by marsha casper cook at 12:17 AM Links to this post