: Re: How to overcome the fact that I can't write long stories? I have written some short stories (in fact, they are flash fiction). When I'm writing short stories, the ideas and the structure come

@Kaufman555

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Try taking a Screenwriting class, one that teaches structure -- or at least plan out what will happen in your story before you sit down to write it. The other good part about taking a class is that it will give you the feeling that you've got to finish the story, like it or not, in order to finish the class. So even if you get bored with the story you'll still have reason to see it through.

I've found that by understanding and defining the structure of a project, both at a macro and micro level, a couple things happen:

Writing speed is increased drastically
You are no longer writing a "long story", you are simply writing from the current position up until the next plot piece or structure point. The immediate goal is no longer as amorphous as "to write a novel", it is only to get to the next point.

I used to have a similar feeling, that completing a long-form project was unattainable, and the #1 thing that Screenwriting 1-3 did for me was show me that it is within reach.

As a shameless self-promotion, I've written an iPhone app that helps you do this. It's called StorySkeleton and it exports to native Scrivener and Final Draft, as well as rtf and txt. You can find it here: www.storyskeleton.com

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