Lessons from the Story Match, #1
I need to develop a body of work: I learned this early on. Almost every short story Dean Wesley Smith wrote in the first week was connected to one of his writing worlds. The June 30 warm-up story titled The Library of Atlantis is linked to his Poker Boy world. The July 1 story, The Case of the Dead Lady Blues , was quickly identified as being a Pilgrim Hugh story. The July 2 story, The Bad Patch of Human Interest , and the July 6 story, A Matter for a Future Year , he discovered to be part of his Seeders universe. The July 3 story, They Were Divided by Cold Debt , he found to be part of his Bryant Street subdivision setting. The July 4 story, The Problem of Grapevine Springs , ended up being part of his time-travel western setting Thunder Mountain. The July 5 story , Best Eaten on a Slow Tuesday , seems to have been a stand-alone. So, I quickly realised that being able to draw on a universe, even a partially developed one was useful when writing under pressure. I...