Out of Nothing by Dawn M. Goldberg

Out of Nothing originally started out as a very different book. Perhaps all books do.

The story was going to follow Isabel, an eleven-year-old growing up in an abusive family. As an escape, she writes a story about Ilsa, an orphan kidnapped to another world. Its creatures force Ilsa to help them hold off the Nothing taking over their world.

As Ilsa helps save them, she realizes her own body is dying. She has to make the decision to continue to help them and die or to save herself.

In writing this story, Isabel finds she has to make a similar choice.

As the author, though, I got to a point where I could no longer work on the novel. I loved Ilsa's story: the characters, the world, the problem. I could have worked in that part of the story all day and all night.

The problem was when I had to work on Isabel's story. I cringed when I even saw the words on the page.

After finishing the rough draft and making it partway through the editing, I cut out Isabel's story. Now, I was just down to Ilsa's story. Happy was I, but unfortunately, Ilsa's story was much longer and nowhere near the number of words required to be a novel.

So, Ilsa's story is a short story, and there are lots of other short story ideas coming down the pike. Look for Out of Nothing and Other Short Stories soon!