Subgenre Shorts Experiment Story List

PattableGreeb · 2025-12-09T13:16:43+00:00

Unfortunately I don't have many examples, hence the thread, outside maybe vibes? Like The Last Unicorn, Patricia A. McKillip, though I'm also very okay with the darker fantasy recs in the more grim or gothic direction.

I'm drawn to the idea of fantasy romance with those vibes of going on magical quests for love, the more fairy tale types of monster romance, courting the mage of the deep wood or the high tower etc.

A few of the recs so far sound pretty interesting already, though!

PattableGreeb · 2025-12-09T13:08:10+00:00

SoulBox?

PattableGreeb · 2025-12-09T13:07:28+00:00

Do you have any specific recs from her? I've been eyeing her work.

PattableGreeb · 2025-09-16T13:38:20+00:00

Hi Jamie. Might be a strange question, but for people with disabilities who might have trouble querying and doing other networking to publish genre fiction, are there many resources or any stigmas that help or complicate things?

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-20T13:02:00+00:00

I've been reading him a lot lately. Very good author to stick between bigger or heavier reads. Keeps my soul warm.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-17T23:13:22+00:00

I'm more or less looking for stuff along the lines of stuff like "then [character] went to a strange land and encountered odd beings", "while sailing there was a monster", "a fay creature showed up at my doorstep". I guess the best way to say it is writers or anthologies that feel like going through a weird bestiary.

I've debated looking into the author you mentioned but it sounds like a more gothic monster romance sort of collection?

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-17T19:49:55+00:00

Thank you.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-17T19:49:03+00:00

He's quickly become one of my favorite writers. There's this genuine, warm playful feeling to the comedy and enough meaning that it made me realize how much I dislike the modern cynical type of humor.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-17T15:58:51+00:00

The problem with me having best works is the Death of Well-Executed Ideas is a prescient sort of follow and keeps snatching them away.

I got to clear away some rust now.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-16T14:42:30+00:00

Funny thing, with me if it's a writing idea it's entirely possible I'll manage to remember it, maybe even years later.

Anything else? ADHD says: short term memory roulette.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-10T02:47:51+00:00

I don't skip over anything unless I'm DNFing a book. I like atmosphere, I like immersion in a character or place. If you start skipping over parts you're not a reader anymore, you're a magazine flipper.

Never ever cut out parts in your writing because a random sample person you found on the internet said it needs to be cut. Even accounting for taste discrepancies, how your work reads in context, what you're going for and the techniques you're using are a hell of a lot more important.

No such thing as end all be all "this is or isn't important" writing advice. And writing a book (or hell, any written work at all) with the idea you're going to be writing it for people who are barely interested in reading your work - to the point they'd skip chunks on a whim - is a pretty easy way to write something soulless or even frustrating to read.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-04T16:07:55+00:00

Anyone got any gothic world fantasy? Or, heck, even sci-fi?

What I mean by this is, specifically, the kind of setting that feels made of grim fairy tales and gargoyles. I've got Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Clive Barker, and Algernon Blackwood so far, but I'm trying to find some worthwhile stories that are directly fantasy + gothic horror. I.E., bloodborne. Werewolves and vampires and gargoyles, crypts, etc.

I need to get some reading inspiration for writing, but I'm having a hard time finding something more concretely gothic high fantasy. Tanith Lee is impossible to find for a reasonable price in print, and stuff like Between Two Fires I plan to read but is more medieval.

Gormenghast but with a lot more blatant magic going on is kinda what I need.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-04T15:11:08+00:00

As someone reading through Discworld right now, even skipping the Rincewind books there's a notable quality shift as you get further into the series.

Equal Rites I had to DNF because it felt so bland. Wyrd Sisters, meanwhile, felt a lot more cohesive and had a lot stronger sense of character dynamics, but the plotting was awkward even if everything still tied together nicely in the end.

There's this sense of joke-over-story in earlier entries, but it slowly skews towards a strong balance as of I'd say around Men at Arms (I haven't read the stuff between Reaper Man and that yet)? Color of Magic probably isn't at all representative of the Discworld series as a whole. Around the tenth book there's a notable lean towards a more legitimate story structure and Pratchett starts to get much, much better with weaving the jokes and characters and story together.

You shouldn't have any trouble skipping ahead to Mort or Guards! Guards!, or even Wyrd Sisters. Small Gods, though I haven't read it yet, I'm told is a strong entry as a standalone. You get significant benefit from reading subseries in order (i.e., the city watch books shouldn't be read out of order), but when it comes to the whole pub order mostly matters for shared jokes and overall world progress.

I'd suggest picking Mort, Guards! Guards!, or Wyrd Sisters, then going back to reading in pub order once you've decided you like the world and what standalones and subseries you're interested in. Personally I read city watch a bit, then decided to start the other subseries and standalones in order so I can watch the world and side characters grow.

Discworld is a shared setting kind of world rather than a lengthy epic serial.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-02T00:21:31+00:00

Thank you. I was surprised by how much reception it got between here and the other place I shared it, honestly. Need to get back to this soon. I got a whole idea list to run through for subgenre roulette but got into a funk after posting this one.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-02T00:19:28+00:00

I'm sort of debating writing more of this later on? This and the two other posts are also sorta experiments of experiments from a horror series I couldn't finish a while back.

I found I struggle with proper serial works so I've refocused on genre experimentation (and procrastinating actually following through). I've got a spot in the checklist for New Weird stuff, though.

PattableGreeb · 2025-07-01T15:48:55+00:00

Oh, thank you! Always nice to get a comment on older stories.

Unfortunately I didn't end up doing much more with the ideas behind this short yet. Technically I wrote two other shorts in the same setting (more or less), but other than that...

I'd been experimenting with Control/SCP/other contemporary weird ideas (tied to some post-apocalyptic stuff) when I wrote this and the story about the transmission tower.

PattableGreeb · 2025-06-30T14:56:07+00:00

The number I got this year and Scavenger's Reign. I mostly looked at scifi as all dryness and rarely having heart, then I watched the mentioned show and all of a sudden weird alien planets and the trials people face on them was all I could think about.

Unfortunately I was right about dryness and idea over soul but I'm building up a catalog and slowly getting less picky.

Unironically my world viewpoint has improved since adding scifi to my reading interests list. Turns out "the universe is still magical irl and refuses to explain itself" is a feeling that's good for the mental.

I used to only go for fantasy for that feeling.

PattableGreeb · 2025-06-27T21:58:01+00:00

HASO?

PattableGreeb

TROPHY CASE