Short Form

January 14, 2023

Midlife Ghostwalker Series 87 Short Form Episodes Available

Short Form Serialization on Medium

150 Words or Less for each episode. There are 82 episodes in the short form outline. Book one expanded and revised version is currently in production. Plus five episodes of a short story outline in the same world. Coming in 2023.

Katje Storm

This was an experiment on Medium where I outline my first book in the Midlife series in short form, 150 words posts. I created 82 episodes. I am currently writing the first draft expanding and revising. I also have a short story in this world that outline on Medium–Midlife Mayhem. This is complete list of the episodes for reading for convenience. You can find all on Medium on my profile and in my lists on the right side of my profile under the name of series.

Want To Support My Writing Enabling Me To Get More Stories Out?
If you are not a Medium member you can read the first three episodes for free. You can subscribe for $5 a month and become a member. I am in the Medium Partnership Program which means I earn money depending on how many minutes a reader spends reading, which depends on how long my stories are. Theses shorts are under 1 minute in read time, so I don’t earn much, but if you subscribe and use my affiliated link, I will get a small portion of the monthly fee for as long as you are a member. Thank you in advance for supporting my work. Here is my Medium Affiliate Link.

Midlife Crisis Trope
Genre: Paranormal Women’s Fiction

(Minu Blurb)

I turned 40, filed for divorce from my cheating soon-to-be ex-husband, if that is not bad enough, he MURDERED me. I didn’t stay dead. I’m magical with a destiny. Who knew? Not me!

Premise:

I have seen ghosts all my life, mostly I ignored them. I thought everyone one saw them, but I live in a magical world I could not see before I died. Now I can’t unsee it. I am a ghostwalker. I have no idea what a ghostwalk is or does, but the dead and the magical do. The dead gave me a guide and teacher to help me figure it out, and the magical community just wants to hire me or use me.

In the human world I am an orphan, a procrastinator, and just can’t get my shit together. I have stayed in a marriage for ten years despite the fact I should have left after the first year. He comes from a big family. I so wanted to be part of that so I hung on. I should have faced the fact they will never love and accept me.

When I caught my husband in bed with another woman — in our house! Well, I was done. Ok I admit, I had suspected he cheated over the years, but in my face? I finally had enough and left filing for divorce.

I am not even sure it was the cheating that did it, but it was the last straw of disrespect I was willing to accept.

I’m tired of being seen as a doormat, people pleaser, the needy orphan in need of love and acceptance, and taken for granted — by everyone! It is time I demanded some respect, and apparently the universe decided to help me with that, along with Shamus, my cheating husband.

This short form experiment was an outline for a novel, which is currently in production expanding, revising, and editing for book length. Read the outline of the experiment that started the series all 87 links on one page for convenience of access.

All 82 link to the Short Form on Medium on one page. Plus five more links to the outline for the short story.

MIDLIFE MAYHEM a short story outlined in short form. This will be a giveaway to my newsletter subscribers.

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May 16, 2022

Midlife Ghostwalker: Katje Storm: A Serialized Short Form on Medium.

Midlife Ghostwalker: Katje Storm

150 Word Short Form Serialization on Medium.
An Experiment in outlining and storytelling.
Midlife Crisis Trope
Genre: Paranormal Women’s Fiction

BLURB:
I just turned forty, plus I just filed for divorce from my cheating soon-to-be ex-husband, but if that is not bad enough, he murdered me. I didn’t stay dead. Turns out I’m magical, a ghostwalker with a destiny I had no clue about.

Read my serialized story on Medium.

I recently learned if you are reading short form stories you do not need a friend link you can read as many short forms behind the payway as you want to without subscribing. Just click the linK above and start reading. As of June 10th, 2022 I am up to episode thirty. E1-30.

An Experiment In Short Form: What is Medium Short Form?

Medium has introduce a new format. 150 word stories for readers who want bite-size reads. Those 150 words include title, subtitle, photo credits, and link words.

The challenge for me is to tell a novel size story in episodes 150 words a pop. I invite you to come on the journey with me and read, comment, tell me how I am doing. Are you engaged? Does the story excite you? Are you having fun? The experience for me is to create rough draft (outline) of a novel, world build, in bites bits for a short form serialization. Its experiment to later be enlarged into a novel.

Here is what Medium says about their short form requirements.
About my Midlife Ghostwalker on Medium.

My Publishing Timeline

My goal is to publish an episode a week on Medium, but more often if I can manage it in my schedule.

Would you like to support me on Medium?

If you use my Medium Referral link I will get $2.27 of the $5.00 monthly subscription fee you pay to Medium. I earn money when subscribers read my stories on the Medium site, unfortunately reading via email subscription or mobile app, or not clicking into the full story to read does not count. This info provide for your FYI, and thank you for reading me in any shape, form, or platform.

Not A Member of Medium? You can still read.

If you are not a member of Medium, I don’t earn money, but you can still read my serialization short form stories free by using my Friend Links down below. If you use the friend link you do not have to sign up for Medium to read or subscribe. I recently learned that you do not need friend link to read short form, those or unlimited reads whether you subscribe or not.

If you have a free account, you can read 3 stories behind the paywall every month free. If the story is not behind the paywall you can read free by signing up for their free account, which means you can read any story not behind the paywall and up to three each month behind the paywall. (FYI my stories are all behind the paywall.)

If you decide to subscribe, the $5.00 a month allow you unlimited and unrestricted reading on Medium.

Read Some Of My Other Fiction Free On My Website

Fiction you can read free on my website here. Some of these stories are also on Medium behind the paywall but you can read total free here on junetakey.com. If you have a problem shoot me an email.

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August 7, 2021

How to Compose a Short Form Fiction Story on Medium

Tell a story in 150 words.

Writing on the Medium Platform Series

What is short form on Medium?

Short form is 150 words or less in the entire post. It is a new thing. I am experimenting with short form fiction. This is what Medium say short form is for their criteria.

How do you write short form?

In short form you have 150 words to tell your story, including the words in your photo arbitration. Frame your tale in story format with a beginning, middle, and end. Take your reader on a journey, or make them curious, or intrigue them. The challenge is doing that with only a few words.

Story has a flow, a pace, and rhythm. Use that in the short form while conveying that small amount of information. Focus on the main point, or emotion, or reaction you are trying to conjure with your words.

What tells Medium this is short form?

The entire first sentence is in bold and stands in for your title. The bold letters should be in sentence case. This tells Medium that yours is a short form story.

You want that first sentence to intrigue, catch the interest of your reader, pull them into the short form. Does your hook fit your story and make it better? Is there a keyword you can include in that sentence that makes good SEO? Only use if the keyword makes that sentence better.

Can you include a CTA?

Your CTA (call to action) is also part of that total 150-word allotment. So if you do a hyperlink, the words count in the total. Don’t make your CTA obvious or identified as a promo. Make it connect/relate to the story or point you are making in your short form. It goes at the end of the piece.

Keep storytelling craft in mind.

Beginning = With a hook
Middle = Conflict, obstacle, or maybe a catchy point or twist that reflects or hints at the conflict or elicits emotion from the reader.
End = Resolution. It should please, satisfy, surprise, intrigue, be twisty, or make your reader want to learn more and click on the connected subtle CTA at the end.

When deciding how to tell your story in a few words, think about your character’s flaw and the deep need that motivates them that stems from this flaw.

What to think about.

What is the lie your character believes? Keep it simple. What if they believe they are unlovable, so act out in various ways? Maybe they have a deep feeling of abandonment, so have trouble trusting. A positive trait taken to the extreme can turn into a negative and be a flaw.

A place to start.

Start in the middle of the action or right after the dark night of the soul.

Examples of short form.

Katie Michaelson, the owner of The Daily Cuppa took one of my stories and showcased it. That is when I understood what can work for short form fiction. This is a perfect example of something you can do.

Katie’s shout-out. Short form.
I just read a bunch of stories by Juneta Key.I’ve wanted to learn to sculpt fiction stories for The Daily Cuppa. When reading NUMBER 99, I got excited all over…medium.com

The original flash fiction story.
NUMBER 99A Flash Fictionmedium.com

What tiny moment can you tweak and dramatize to elicit an emotional response from your reader in a single moment of time where something significant happens?

Short form fiction: A piece I created for short form fiction to introduce a character with story tease.
Do You Believe In Magic? — Smoak is Magic.I am a Fae spirit entity. My element is fire. My name is Smoak. I’ve been mistaken for an angel. As a spirit entity, I…medium.com

Other things you can manipulate

Your story flow, pace, and rhythm, playing with tone and atmosphere. Every story has a sound when you read it out loud to yourself or use a free online text to speech reader, let the app read it for you. What emotion does the sound trigger? Is it catchy in rhythm and sound?

Look at your word choice. Choose strong nouns and verbs. Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly, but when you pick them, pick strong ones that promote an emotion, or action, or immediate word image.

All these words are going to your word count, so make them do the work for the story to make it memorable.

Take your reader on a miniature-micro adventure even if it is only emotional. Make every word, space, and nuisance of the story count to make your 150 words grab your readers’ attention and keep them reading and wanting more.

Remember:

Make Your Words Count.
All story has a beginning with a hook — grab your reader!
The first line works as your title and is bold letters in sentence case, which indicates short form.
Stay aware of your structure: Beginning, Middle, End.
Watch your flow: Rising action to the middle, and falling action to the end.
Dig deep into the character: Internal and External obstacles and angst.
Play on the positive trait to extreme and/or act out of the negative traits.
CTA should relate to the story and not be obvious.
Start in the action sequence near the end or after the dark night of the soul.
You only have 150 words to use counting your photo arbitration word count in your total words for your story piece.

Brief Bio: Juneta is a speculative fiction writer. She writes Sci-fi fantasy, space opera, fantasy-adventure, paranormal fantasy while playing with the complexity of human nature with elements of mystery and romance. She wears a lot of hats as a story development coach, a Ninja Writer Team member, and published author. Learn more about Juneta here.

This article also on published Medium.