Short Story Collection

The thought of doing something like a themed collection has always fascinated me. I wasn't sure if it's in me to create small stories that are engaging, short, while having a satisfying resolution. The shortest thing I've completed so far is a 100-page screenplay.

I've read several short stories. I think the challenging aspect is for them not to feel like they're excerpts cut and pasted from a longer work. Like watching a scene taken from the middle of a movie without any context of what came before.

I've read several of these and they seem like they're just that, where the endings feel like they should lead on into something else I wish I could keep reading. The one's I enjoy leave more of a lasting impression after I've finished them. Not wondering where the story can go, but how the theme of the story echoes in my mind for days afterward.

I'm trying to write a short story collection based on emotion. But, these shorts are created with science fiction in mind. I'm trying to go for five shorts. As of this writing, I have premises for three.

I understand that having a theme as broad as human emotions isn't very specific. What emotions to focus on? Is it one emotion over the course of each story or every story? More specifically, how emotive reactions are affected by extreme situations? By human and non-human alike.

I admit that I am nervous about tackling something like this, but if I can pull it off, I think that it will help me move into different territories, and most importantly, improve my writing. After all, that's the point. Better writing.

Today is Tuesday July, 1st. I surprisingly have two days off from work in the middle of the week. Not to gross people out with the gastrointestinal metaphor, but I hope to vomit(Sorry!) out these stories as quickly as possible.

Here are the tentative titles for these shorts:

1) Explorer 8

2) No-star Review

3) Reset Button

4) TBD

5) TBD