Of course it's 'real' writing. Every narrative is important, if only to the author.

One word after another is how stories get made. Never let anyone tell you different.

I always though the dichotomy of an undead pediatrician would be quite resonant as a basis for urban fantasy. A creature of the dead who aids in helping life come into the world would be useful for some weighty themes. Yet the only ideas that spring to mind are all very short gag type stories.

Pat Elrod has a FAQ page on her website for wannabe writers that covers a lot of things that have been discussed here, such as fanfic. There are a lot of helpful links to other places on the Web for writers to get info, find agents, gather in writers' forums, etc. Lots of good stuff: http://www.vampwriter.com/FAQ-WRITING.htm

While her rant against most POD publishers is right on the money, I can recommend one that is legit: www.lulu.com. Their service is free to use and their product is first rate and quite professional. They offer both paperback and hardcover in a variety of sizes, allow writers to choose/create their own cover art and even name their own royalty.

Last year a group of my friends decided to gather up most of my 'Net published material and edit it into a print collection. These nice folks did a wonderful job of copy-editing, typesetting and designing the layout of the book. Another friend created beautiful front and back cover art. My friend Claire Wolfe ( RebelFire, The State Vs. The People, The Freedom Outlaw's Handbook) wrote a blush makingly flattering introduction.

Check it out here: Symbols Flow: The Collected Works Of George Potter.

The final product was a beautiful thing to behold, in both formats. Lulu pays on time and what they say they'll pay.* They have helpful customer support and an active community of self-publishers. I am thrilled by their service and heartily recommend them to anyone who could use it.

*I've so far made several hundred dollars on this book of stuff I originally gave away free on the net, with zero marketing. I think the stigma of self-publishing is rapidly dying in the information age, thanks to POD technology and innovative companies lile Lulu.

How many words on average do you have in your short story?

Depends. My most common length is 5000-7500 words. My shortest story was 586 words. My longest (technically a novella) was 20,000.

Finished 1st draft of The Joker King, the 5000 word first 'stanza' in a six short story cycle that leads up to my (sigh -- still in seemingly unending 2nd Draft) first novel The Crumbler. I finished the 5th part (Tessellation) over a year ago and am halfway done with the 2nd Part (which I initially wrote in a notebook while sans computer).

Bleh. Maybe one day some of the discipline I have in meeting my daily quota will leak over into my organizational skills. 

Here's something I've recommended to quite a few people that actually worked wonders. I myself thought it was common sense, but I guess not.

Don't leap right into writing novels! Even if you only want to be known as a novelist or etc. Start with short fiction. Become proficient with telling a complete story, with beginning middle and end. While short fiction is by no means easy to write (some consider it to be more difficult than novel length), by its very nature it allows the beginner a very helpful thing: a reachable goal while that white hot 'oh-lordy-I-gotz-a-great-idea' passion is burning brightly.

Short fiction allows you to practice, in miniature, all the important tools of novel writing: structure, character, plot, dialogue, integration of backstory with action, etc.

And the best part of this as a training technique is this: your short fiction doesn't have to really be all that good! It just has to be completed and analyzed and what you learn from it used to better your next story.

Give it a shot.

People who read my short story Tessellation seemed to like the method -- or at least be involved enough in the story that they didn't notice.

Since I find 99.999% of graphic sex and violence scenes that I read to be gratuitous and non-necessary, I avoid them in my own writing.