This is a good thing, right?

It's that time of year again, when the days are growing shorter, the leaves are changing, and there's that woodsy smell hanging in the air signaling a change in the seasons. I think we all know what I'm talking about here...

I'm thinking of writing a short story.

I may not have said it here, or to anyone for that matter, but if there's one thing I suck at it's writing short stories, and song lyrics...

If there are two things I suck at it's writing short stories, song lyrics, and relationships...

If there's three things I suck at, it's writing short stories, song lyrics, relationships, and handling finances...

Okay, there's a lot of things I suck at, short stories being pretty close to the top of the list. So why on god's green earth am I thinking about taking another stab at the genre. Maybe I want to keep poking at it until it's dead, never to rear its monstrously hideous head again. Who knows. But one thing I know for certain: I will not substitute my short story writing for any progress I'm making on the two novels I'm pecking away at. And, (this is a biggie), I will not worry about the word count either. If the damn thing wants to grow into a novel or a novella (eew, not a novella) then who am I to stop it, although I don't see that happening. The idea I'm playing with just doesn't have enough meat to it to last 300 or so pages. That's not to say I wouldn't ever tinker with the idea of trying to find avenues in which this thing could travel. In fact, I've already got a few thoughts on that. But damnit, something is telling me not to be so quick to drive a stake through the short genre's heart, that a really good writer should be able to master several different styles, and my heroes, i.e. Vonnegut, Gaiman, Salinger, etc., never shied away from that sort of work.

Still, I hate the idea of doing something I suck at. It's so much easier to do stuff that comes naturally--like feeling sorry for myself, which, as it turns out, happens to be the very premise for the story I'm contemplating.

Shouldn't be that hard, should it?