Grant

The last chapter to my short story "Grant" or "How Grant found out he wasn't as straight as he thought" was posted today.

This short story was written several years ago as a fanfic, as a complement piece to a longer story. I did some editing to it, changed names, and tried to keep it as far from the fandom as I could with out changing the story. In reality I believe it was A/U enough to require mostly only some name changes.

I like my Grant story, I like the tone and pace of it. It is far from perfect and it perhaps would need a bit more editing, if it were to ever be a "professionally published" work. However, it was never meant to be that. It was meant to be a bit of fun, a challenge, a chance to play with a side character I became attached to and that couldn't grow or show all of it's colors in the main story.

Now, I received a review, that relates the story felt rushed because of the time jumps. I couldn't agree more with the reviewer and I love the fact that she actually gave me some type of con-crit. And I started thinking about the story.

I have to mention, this short story (four chapters long, about 15,000+ words) is about Grant from age 12-13 to age 22-23. How can I avoid time jumps, and the "rushed" feeling and keep it a short story. It seems to me almost impossible! The story has to focus on important points of his life, and move on quickly or it would be a very long story.

I could probably rework the ending, make that fourth chapter into four and five. Give it a bit more depth, but then I'd have to go into Dustin's story, and Dustin already has 20+ chp story.

The point that brings Grant to Nikey is made, I think subtle and then brutal, but made. One day I'll revisit this story and try to work this out. How do you fit 12 years of a persons life in a short story?