EPISODE 746 - Douglas Smith - Character Based Writing, Bundling Short Stories, Spirit Dance and Borderlanz

Author and guest Douglas Smith joins the show from Unionville, just outside Toronto, reflecting on Canadian winters, good coffee, and the long path that led him to finally chase his writing dream in his early forties. He admits he waited too long, always assuming he would “start someday,” until the early death of one of his favorite authors, Roger Zelazny, jolted him into action. Looking back, he wishes someone had told him to simply start, and to begin with short stories instead of aiming immediately at a big novel. For Douglas, short fiction is the ideal training ground: it lets writers experiment with different genres, voices, and techniques across many smaller projects, while also teaching them how to submit, handle rejection, and learn from editors.

That philosophy inspired his book for emerging writers, Playing the Short Game, which walks beginners through why and how to build a career through short fiction, from first draft to contracts and rights management. Douglas describes how writing many short stories gave him a full creative toolbox before he ever tackled novels. He also highlights the emotional journey of early rejections, the encouragement of personalized feedback, and the importance of protecting your rights so you can later reprint stories, resell them, or collect them into your own books.

As an author, Douglas is known for richly developed characters and a distinctly visual, cinematic style. He finds it ironic that readers praise his settings because description used to be his biggest struggle, until a craft lesson on “writing setting as character” helped him anchor description in point of view and emotion. He explains how short fiction forced him to make every word count, hook readers from the first line, and compress full worldbuilding and character arcs into just a few thousand words. Those same skills now strengthen his novels, including his shapeshifter universe (beginning with the story “Spirit Dance” and the novel The Wolf at the End of the World), his Dream Rider Saga trilogy, and a connected near-future post-apocalyptic science fiction project.

Douglas also demystifies short story collections, talking about how he sequences stories to shape a satisfying reader experience, balances length, tone, and genre, and always includes at least one new story to reward dedicated fans. He shares how reviews and endorsements from admired authors can be both powerful and dangerous for writers, recommending that beginners protect themselves from early negative reviews while still learning to use positive feedback as encouragement and promotion. Throughout, he returns to the themes of experimentation, resilience, and generosity: using short fiction to grow your craft, building a backlist that can be repackaged over time, and paying it forward to the next generation of writers.

Key takeaway: Douglas’s journey shows that it is never too late to start writing, and that beginning with short fiction can give you the skills, confidence, and resilience you need to build a lasting, flexible career as an author.

https://smithwriter.com/

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