Trouble, Trouble

by Jamie Campbell, in Musings (3 Comments)

I recently released my first short story – Trouble. Short stories are something fairly new to me. I like writing epic, full length novels. But I wanted to do something different so Trouble was born.

You can read Trouble for free here. Teeny tiny spoiler below.

This story came to me when I had just the opening scene, a girlfriend being tricked into robbing a bank. I had her voice in my head going “I think I knew when I had to break up with my boyfriend”. And that’s it. It whirled around in my mind for months before I knew what to do with it.

That’s always the dilemma when I have a new idea. I have a story and characters, but what medium should it take? Is it a movie? Is it a book? Is it a television series? And now, is it a short story? I can’t answer the question until I have a fair idea of the entire story.

Normally when deciding between a screenplay and a novel, the decision is easy. To me, a movie is more visual and action orientated. I say with the characters for only a short period of time and tell a moment in their life. I love them and then leave them.

Books, however, are far more complex to me. I spend so much time with these characters they become good friends. I know every idiosyncrasy, every thought process, every inch of them. I use up tens of thousands of words telling their story, it has to be interesting or I’ll get bored. And a bored writer is a bored reader.

Television series are somewhere in between, probably why I enjoy writing them. You can be brief in the time you spend with the character but you also get to build upon their story with each new episode. It’s kind of like having a novel but with the benefits of a visual medium.

Short stories are kind of a like a movie, they give you a glimpse into a moment of someone’s life but you don’t get to know them like your best friend. You are with them for that moment and then you leave them to it.

Writing these short stories, however, also fosters ideas. I like Tessa from Trouble. She’s interesting and unlike any of my other characters. She may get more to her story yet, but until then I’m happy to share her with you.

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