45 Comments
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Mark Adams's avatar

Just awesome… a plot line and characters that are interesting and hold one’s attention , and the ending irony is… well it’s just incredible. I’m just astonished at how you can package a story into such a ‘tiny house’ package so succinctly… you have a gift! Matt Labash on Substack just talked about the ‘death of reading… the decline of the full novel. No one in our 1 minute You Tube /Tic Toc society can pay attention to anything longer than a couple of minutes anyway… your stories are an entire story compressed by elemental forces in shining diamonds. I wish you 1M paid subscribers!

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

I'm laughing. Thank you. Your comment decompressed me from the tension of pounding out that story tonight. Thanks Mark. I appreciate it. Tell your friends to get over here and start the quest for a million

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Mark Adams's avatar

Seriously dude… I see a Netflicks limited series here… pulling over on the side of the road and pounding out this stuff… and you have the character embellishment La to carry it off… 1300 stories… how crazy is that!

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

That's my goal. Sell the rights to these things. But agents don't wanna rep short fiction. They laugh in your face.

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Ben Woestenburg's avatar

Why don't you develop your own anthology series? Have a narrator introduce a story-- 1/2 hour, even 15 minutes? Little shorts you can sell to Netflix, or Apple, or whoever. I think it might work. You could put out a story a week and work on the scripts the rest of the time. You know probably know people in the biz. Worth a shot.

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

Cost and time prohibitive. To pay a crew to film something Netflix worthy on spec takes thousands I do not have. I wrote a twelve minute film, called in favors, cut corners I didn't wanna cut and it was 7000

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Ben Woestenburg's avatar

I thought the whole idea was to get backers?

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

Selling rights and getting backers is two entirely different things.

It is nearly impossible to get people to invest in film. People much more well connected than I struggle with it.

It's a lengthy and minefield filled process. Google " obtaining film financing."

Selling rights through an agent isn't easy, but it's easier in the sense that you're paid for your intellectual property and someone else has to do the hard work to bring that idea to the screen.

I don't think I ever stated that I wish to produce these stories as film myself. I've said they might make good films or series. That's a long way from wanting to tackle the

production of them.

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Patris's avatar

This isn’t an episode, or short story, it’s a film, or a novel.

These people walk (and fly, disappear, and die. A lifetime). I remember the bicentennial, strange, dreamlike days that I feel in the story.

So very very good, J. Better than good.

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Mark Adams's avatar

They always ‘laugh’ at the disrupters! Seriously… your life story and professional talent has ‘Netflicks’ written all over it!

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Patris's avatar

When I restack your stories can someone noticing my doing so read it through?

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

The free ones they can.

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Patris's avatar

Do you mention that when you’re posting? Where can I tell from the page?

(I’m remain very blind to protocol)

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

Tell your followers there is no paywall

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Patris's avatar

I know this one is btw

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Celeste Tsang's avatar

You are the short story legend, Jimmy! I really want to write one now.

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

Do it. Bang it out. Create one character you care about and run from there

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Celeste Tsang's avatar

I have swipe file of ideas. Maybe I can try to write on the upcoming long holiday :)

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

That message was 17 words. You can write 20 x that quicker than you think

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Celeste Tsang's avatar

Thank you for making it sound easy! How many words do you normally for these? With full character development and stuff?

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

I have a book of 365 stories that are all exactly 100 words ( Humans, Being - A Story a Day for a Year ) . My second book ( That Fountain Ain't Gonna Grant Your Wish) I think the shortest is 270 and there are at least five under 400

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Celeste Tsang's avatar

That is wild! A round of applause to you.

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Mark Adams's avatar

No ‘maybes’!!

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Celeste Tsang's avatar

Got you!

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Zelmo of Troy's avatar

I've told classes that there are two not-very-secret secrets to writing.

One is that to be a better writer, be a better reader. Read lots of different things, and pay attention to what works for you, what bores you, what you would have improved, how you would have improved it.

The other, as Mr. Doom says, is sit down and write. Put words on the page, or on the screen. Decide you're going to write a few paragraphs every day about something you saw, or describing a person you met, or whatever. Just get in the habit.

It sounds as though you already have the kindling to start this fire. Don't force yourself to finish a story every night, but grab one of your ideas and play with it. Write the first sentence and see where that takes you, or flesh out the background of a character. Or, heck, write a story.

Feel free to evaluate it later, but don't judge it. This isn't a contest. You're just (mixed metaphor alert) priming the pump and training the muscles.

Have fun.

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Celeste Tsang's avatar

Thank you! I am working on my first novel but Doom’s short stories gets me excited to try writing short stories. I bet writing short stories would help me understand the process better if anything.

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

They will. I promise. Run a few 5ks before you try a marathon.

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Karlyn's avatar

Wow. Just wow. This thoroughly smart, satisfying piece of fiction transported me back to my small hometown’s bicentennial parade, its own “weird” family and FBI involvement (a CAT lab, so I guess a science-y lab). I want to see this town and characters you created on screen. Like the movie that is playing in my head as I savor each sentence.

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

I love wow. I'm smiling. It would make a pretty good film.

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Janet Martin's avatar

Wow, so good! And - I had red, white and blue bell bottoms, in first grade. I wore them with a navy turtleneck and loved them.

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

Love that!

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Joe's avatar

That's why we support you, Jimmy.

You do you.

Great story!

Every day a totally different story with a surprising twist.

Carry on, sir, and don't apologize for trying to grow and improve!

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Will Boucher's avatar

Stunning work

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

Thanks Will.

Dig in, I'm sure you'll find more you like. 1300+ in the archive .

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Will Boucher's avatar

I'm sure I will, I'm diving in to the deep end

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

Spring for the annual. You won't regret it. I promise.

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Justin Deming's avatar

Ludden Royal is as good a name as Demon Copperhead or better. What a wild and riveting story, complete with plenty of twists and turns along the way.

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Carol Angel's avatar

Wow!❤️❤️❤️,novel please

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

I'd love to have the time to write a novel Carol, but I don't. I gotta hustle to make a living.

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V Moire's avatar

This is just so good. I loved the story, and remembering early 80s SNL and mid-seventies crab apple fights.

Is the Kink’s Destroyer and Royal’s mom’s paranoia intentional, or am I just grasping at straws?

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

Intentional all day long. There are a few songs about paranoia but I thought that one fit best

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