I have been thinking about short stories lately. I wrote several as homework assignments when I took a fiction writing course, and was quite surprised and happy at how they turned out. (I had always told myself I couldn't do fiction.) I even published a handful in various places.

Now, whenever I see a call for submissions or a contest involving short stories, I rack my brain for which of those initial stories are left (unpublished). It is kind of silly. The other day I told myself, Hey, write some more short stories! I can't beat those old ones to death, no matter how much I like them.

I have actually had a couple in the works for a while now, but I didn't know how they would turn out so I left them hanging. Their premises are really interesting but I need to wrap my head around them from start to finish.

I just found this advice over at Write101.com:

• Put a man up a tree
• Throw stones at him
• Get him down

That sounds about right.