To the Readers - September 20, 2025

I think now is a good time for another one of these “To the Readers,” I’ve decided to call them. No short stories or articles this time, unfortunately. However, I do have some new developments regarding what was initially going to be this blog post.

August was the month of articles, demonstrating some of my more copywriting and content writing style. September has been more about what really lights my fire: Fiction! I’ve included the genre of each of the short short stories (also called Flash Fiction) in the titles, one of which being “Middle Grade Fiction.” For those of you that might wonder what that means, it’s actually exactly what it sounds like: Fiction for kids in middle school or junior high.

“But, Mat,” I pretend you’re wondering, “Why such a narrow demographic for an entire subgenre of fiction?” Well, it’s actually a subgenre of a subgenre, to be overly granular about it. Middle Grade, just like the YA genre, Dr. Seuss, and “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie,” is categorized as Children’s Literature. An avenue of writing and storytelling I took an entire course on in college.

The term “Children’s Literature” typically refers to books for little kids, from when they learn their A,B,C’s all through elementary school. But the intellectual and educational capabilities of children change and grow as they do, therefore, so does what they read. Middle Grade fiction typically tells stories that try to stick within the confines of context readers can directly, personally relate to or conceptualize, the same goes with their themes and subject matter. And then, of course, the hormone-addled pubescent phase of high school is classified as Young Adult Fiction, or YA. This is where the blinders pretty much come off, and the classification of what is or isn’t YA is mostly a marketing or publishing decision, but there are some stylistic choices and common tropes more associated with YA than Adult Fiction.

Anyway, I’m rambling on about all of this because, initially, the next piece of fiction I intended to release on the blog was the YA story I wrote during my Children’s Literature course. My instructor enjoyed it quite a bit, and thought that - with some elbow grease and maybe a spit shine - it could really be great (his words, not mine). And so, after going through it a couple times, trying to give it that polish, I sent it to him again to get his feedback on the adjustments. And he ultimately affirmed what I was already starting to gather myself – there’s more to this story than it’s current size permits. He even suggested it could even become a novella.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. The story would be a bit easier to submit to literary agents and publishers on it’s own as a novella, rather than trying to get it into an anthology or collection. The thing is, a novella has a minimum word count of 17,500. As it stands now, that’s nearly triple the size of the story! Don’t get me wrong, another 12,00 words or so isn’t a daunting endeavor on it’s own. But each of those additional words must be an absolute necessity. The last thing anyone wants in a novella – or any story, for that matter – is a bunch of fluff just to pad the word count. Words that come together in a clear and concise flow always make for the most impactful storytelling, even though novels usually get much more grace in this regard than Flash or novellas.

Point being, I’ve got my next project. I’ll try to find more pieces of bite-sized fiction to share here in the meantime, although I am admittedly a rather long-winded fellow. My natural inclination just seems to be for bigger stories. When it comes to prose, anyway. I should point out that I do have two pieces of Flash that have previously been published by an online literary magazine that I could share here. At first, I was a little on the fence about posting them to the blog, but they are my stories, and there wouldn’t be any negative ramifications for doing so. Perhaps that’s what I do while I’m drafting out this YA novella.

I’m also still planning to write a standalone fantasy novel project set in the same world as my first novel, but I’m still crystalizing my ideas for it. As far as the first novel goes, I’ve realized how inadequate I feel as a self-editor. It’s definitely not something that comes natural to me, but some early feedback I’ve gotten has helped me tremendously with getting started. Realistically, these two projects are probably a long time from seeing the light of day, if at all, and the same goes for the novella; but that is the goal I have in mind when writing them, and so I would much rather make them as quality as possible, rather than try to rush through them.

That’s all I have for now! Please love thy neighbor, and be a kind and positive influence on one another. More Flash Fiction coming up, and perhaps even a sneak peak of the novella after that? You'll have to subscribe to find out. After all, it's free!