Short Stories or Novels?

[Alex]

I have heard people say that starting off publishing short stories is a better idea than jumping into full length novels? Do people read short stories, they don't seem that common on the market? What's everyone's thoughts?

I'm not really looking for links or anything (but if you know of any blogs on the subject, by all means, post it) I'm looking for opinions here guys

[Telcontar]

1) Which do you write best? There's what you start with.

If you think you write them equally well, then I'll say that the short-story market is at least as competitive as the novel market, and you'll be doing all submissions yourself (lots of work there).

This, however, is short-term thinking. In long term, do both.

[ALB2012]

It depends on the story- erotica is full of short stories. I would say if you want a novel go with that, if you have something that won't quite be a novel then publish it as short story. I would buy a short story if I thought it was good. Nice to read on the bus or before bed.

[Bear]

I would say when you are writing the story and see how it goes and if you have said what you want to say in the work then that's all you need. Sometimes you can get what you want to say across in a short story other times it may be a novel, novella, or novelette. From personal experience I can say that I write short stories or novellas. That doesn't mean I won't sit down and write a novel. I've thought about it I just don't want to fill a book of gobbily gook that is boring so the idea has to warrant a novel.

What would you rather read, a boring 600 page novel or a tight one hundred page novella? I think it depends on the material and story.

*Nowadays, with the ereader and ibookstore people can download quick reads and get through them in an hour or two when they are traveling or on the go. Plus, you can always put a collection of short stories into one book

[Twook00]

I've heard it said that short stories are a great way to get started as a writer, especially from Ray Bradbury, George R. R. Martin, and Stephen King. Many of my favorite authors (including those aforementioned) began their careers this way and continue to write short fiction.

Here are the benefits, in my opinion:
1) The Practice - If you're like me, you might have 50 ideas swimming through your head at one time. I have a habit of starting a novel, getting to a difficult place in that novel, and giving up to move on to something else. The result is that I am getting a ton of practice with beginnings, but virtually none with middles and ends (and character development, plot development, and anything else that requires a story to be complete).

Short stories, on the other hand, allow the writer to practice all of these elements in a very short amount of time. You get accustomed to finishing things and enhancing an entire story. And, as they are short, you can write several of them in the time it takes to write one sprawling epic novel.

2) The Recognition - While you may not be an avid reader of short fiction, there are many sites and publishers who pay a great deal of attention to this field.

Imagine you write a few good shorts, you get published in Asimov's or Analog or Clarkesworld, maybe you win an award or two, and then you decide you want to write a novel. Well, your reputation as a competent, successful writer will come in very handy when publishing. Plus, if you can interest readers in as little as 25 pages or less, then they will be anxious to see what you can do with 400 pages.

I was not interested in short fiction until I was told it would help my writing. I started listening to short fiction podcasts and I have to say, I love them now. I would recommend you read the Songs of a Dying Earth anthology edited by George R. R. Martin. He actually has an amazing story in there (as does Neil Gaiman).

[Bear]

Plus you don't have the time invested in them as would a novel. If they end up being crap it's easier to move on without sitting and moping about how I devoted two years writing a novel and can't get it out to anyone. It seems there is a bit of a lesser workload with greater chance of returns that can help a fledgling writer get over the hump.

With that said short stories and novellas are definitely a different breed then novels. I like to put really strange twists, shocks, or revelations in the ones I come up with and sometimes that isn't easy to do.

[MichaelSullivan]

I have heard people say that starting off publishing short stories is a better idea than jumping into full length novels? Do people read short stories, they don't seem that common on the market? What's everyone's thoughts?

I'm not really looking for links or anything (but if you know of any blogs on the subject, by all means, post it) I'm looking for opinions here guys

I've only started to write "decent" short stories - I think it takes a very different skill set, and one that I'm not particularly well suited for - I tend to need the extra size of a novel to tell a compelling story. There may be those that can do either well, but I think for me I'll always be a better novelist than a short story writer.

So...I guess the first question is which do you prefer to write? If you are "forcing" short stories (as I did at one time on the advice of an agent) I don't think you'll produce high quality results. But if you "love" writing short stories than I think if you do it well there are ways to monetize the time spent on it.

[Weaver]

It's a good idea to master some skills for writing before tackling an epic novel. That said, telling everyone that writing short stories will teach them how to write novels is like telling them that driving a car will teach them how to fly an airplane. (The truth is, there are people who get a pilot's license before they're old enough to get a license to drive a car.) It's a different skill, although related, and some authors who care quite good at writing novels are not nearly as good at writing shorter works. If they'd gone the route of short-stories-first, they'd never have gotten anywhere.

[Kevin O. McLaughlin]

This is a more complicated question than it sounds.

Once upon a time, most writers began careers with short stories. In fact, go back far enough, and more writers were making a living selling shorts than were selling novels (pulp era). That continued through the 50s, 60s, but was fading by the 70s. Magazines folded. People stopped reading short stories as much, and the venues to sell short fiction collapsed. That collapse continued through the end of the 20th century, til by 2001 it was actually HARDER to get a short story sold at professional rates (5 cents or more per word) than to get a novel accepted by a publisher.

Despite that fact, many, many old guard writers "knew" that writers should start with short stories then move on to novels. They passed down that advice, often without considering whether it was still valid (largely, it hadn't been for decades).

Fast forward to 2010 - the advent of ebooks. We see an explosion of new venues for short stories. Ebook anthologies abound today. New ezines are eager to buy short stories. And short fiction self published as ebooks often sell steadily - if slowly - and promise to continue selling at a slow but steady rate through a writer's career. Some well known pros have tested self epublishing with a short story (famously, Barry Eisler made $30k on on short story in a few months, which greatly impacted his decision to turn down a $500k two book deal). Other writers are suing short fiction, either self published or put out through a publisher, as an additional revenue stream (John Scalzi is releasing buckets of short stories and a couple of novellas through Subterrainian Press right now).

Short stories are selling. From personal experience, I've sold over a hundred copies of short fiction in the last year. Not huge money, but it promises to be a worthwhile in the long run.

So once again, the answer has changed. Some writers, like Dean Wesley Smith, have postulated that it might be possible to build a career with a real living wage via just short fiction, today. That hasn't really been true in my lifetime, until (perhaps) now. Dean's math is heavily debated, but it seems plausible to do some good sales that route, anyway.

I would say the answer is this: do you like to read short stories, or novels?
If you don't read a LOT of short fiction, you're probably not going to write good short stories, just like if you don't read a LOT of novels, you're probably not going to be a very good novelist. If you enjoy reading a given length format, odds are good you'll enjoy writing it as well (not always, but likely). If you enjoy both, do both. . Mixing things up can be very valuable, and publishers are often quite happy to have an author produce short work set in the same universe as novels that writer is producing for them; the short stories draw in more readers for the books.

Lots of potential ways to mix this up. Lots of options.

[JCFarnham]

Kevin has it. Short stories are not a sure fire way to success in literature. To the point where I wouldn't bother writing them if I didn't like the format. I do, so I will. In the end the ebook markets allow one to sell short fiction regardless of whether there are any traditional distribution avenues left now days.