Why Not Short Stories?

[Bear]

My first book comprised of six short stories. The first four were linked to form one larger story. The name of the story was Hazel and each short could stand alone but if you connected the dots there were linking points. The fifth short story spawned a novella which is the prequel to the short story. There are many ways to market and explore short stories.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I dunno. I've heard from a lot of traditionally published author's that I work with say short stories are becoming a distinct style more so than ever.

Writing a short takes a certain skill set. Boiling it down to the fewest possible words and all. In my opinion if you want to write short stories then great! That's a subset that is not only worthy but could use some rejuvenation. However, if your desire is to write a novel, well that's kind of a different skill set. Better to practice actually writing a novel.

The one thing about writing shorts though, that can translate to the novel writer, is the necessity to be concrete & concise. If you can master that in a short, well it can only help you in writing a full book.

 

[Ghost]

I love short stories. While I have plans for novels, I find short stories easier to deal with. Since a short story has a tight focus and narrow scope–one central idea, one conflict or issue, few scenes and locations–I can visualize the whole better.

I'm like Feo in that my stories are very condensed, mostly because of my pacing and the lack of details or meandering. It's in and out for me. I've started stories thinking they'll be ~6000 words, but they turn out to be 2000 words. I can't imagine starting a short story and ending up with a novel!

I've noticed the forum is very novel-centric, perhaps even oriented toward multiple books. I see many folks here who look at short stories as stepping stones to getting a novel published (either through practice or publication credits) or as a supplement to long works rather than an art form in their own right. Poor, little short story. But I guess it hasn't been as mistreated as the novella. Things seem to be changing with the rise of e-publishing, so yay!

Perhaps some writers prefer novels because they read more novels. I read a lot of anthologies and a few collections growing up. While forming opinions about what I like, I had both long and short fiction to draw from, so I never saw one as inferior to the other.

There's often more money and prestige in novels, and that might influence new writers dreaming of success. They imagine a book on the bookshelf next to their favorite authors, not one short story out of dozens in a magazine. I suspect it's one reason some writers avoid self-publishing and e-publishing as well.

Something that used to be done, but does not appear to have been brought up so far:

*linked* short stories or novellas which combine to form a full novel.

Each story becomes a chapter or group of chapters in the finished book.

I've mentioned before, perhaps only in chat, that I'm working on a short story cycle. The stories wouldn't exactly be chapters since they could be read on their own and they feature different events. The plan is to have 12-15 stories set in the same city. The main character is different in each one, but each makes minor appearances in other stories. The goal is for each character's actions to affect others even if they never meet.

I wouldn't call something like this a novel as it's a collection, but if you do stories that are episodic and something remains constant throughout (like the main character or the conflict), I could see it as a novel. I'm also thinking of doing a set of serial short stories, but the plans are still sketchy.

 

[julidrevezzo]

As a writer, I still write them. It's a good way to "clear the throat" as J.V. Jones calls it, and you never know, it just might turn into something longer. I have more than one that became the first chapter (or at least a chapter) in a novel manuscript. One of the things I'm sure no one has overlooked is that a good deal of the print short story zines, aside from having narrow focus, have virtually dropped out of existence--especially with the demise of Realms of Fantasy. The hardest part has always been getting the story past those gatekeepers. It seems like all the majors have a "list of what we hope we never see again" yet, one can point to a dozen new releases that have the very same things. Quite frankly, those lists of "forbidden things" are never what make me set a short story down in disappointment, but in fact from time to time I wish the intriguing little short had been *longer*. That's what invariably disappoints me with the form. On the other hand, yeah, I find I've purchased more kindle books shorter than 30k in word length these days.

As far as writing and submitting shorts, well, they have been good learning experience so I say try them. Duotrope has a gazillion and one suggested zines. You never know. You might get lucky and sell a story. If that doesn't suit, well, e-publishing makes an alternative to traditional short story mag submissions.

 

[Ambora]

I enjoy writing short stories; I haven't in a while though. Whenever I would write short stories for an old class, the feedback was always the same: it would sound more like the first chapter of a book rather than a short story.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

WIP = short story... unless it grows into an unfinishable monster.

What I'm really aiming for is a setting that can have lots of connected stories involving a main character and several side characters. The side stories are meant to be one-shots, and the MC has several stories. In a way, it's not much different from you working on a novel and short stories in between.


I agree with Wright's point that the market may have once driven longer novels, but now that e-readers are big, short stories are more marketable. In fact, there's a royalty model (Kindle Shorts, I think) that give authors incentive to keep it down to 30k or less.

 

[JCFarnham]

In fact, there's a royalty model (Kindle Shorts, I think) that give authors incentive to keep it down to 30k or less.

Ah well there's the answer then. In marketing terms that is a huuuuge tell that some power out there in the industry has decided that short stories are the in thing, or rather they prefer them and are pushing the form.

That say's a lot about the industry in fact.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

It does.

But given the changes in my life, this is a good change for me. My first novel was started before my first daughter was born and finished a year later when she was a few months old. I actually moved from Hong Kong to U.S. in that time. So... 155,000 words in a year. Yay me.

Now I have two pre-school-aged girls running around and a third about to be born. I prefer writing short stories, at least now while they're young and in need of attention.

 

[Helen]

Are you adverse to writing short stories or just prefer to write longer works?

Great exercise - set yourself a target of writing one short story a day for a month.

And improving the ones that aren't so good.

You learn SO MUCH about construction.

I love short stories.

 

[Philip Overby]

That's a great idea, Helen. I may even try that in August maybe.

 

[ethgania]

Short stories are love-hate for me. I like reading them. I like the idea of being able to sit down, write a story, not spending a million years finishing it or editing afterwords, and then having this cute bite-sized pocket of a world that anyone can read and enjoy without much commitment to read another hundred thousand words. I like analyzing short stories and seeing just how much they have in there.
But I think and expand waaay too much to ever fit any of my fantasy stuff into short form. I write disjointed scenes a lot, sure, but that's without explaining any of the background, etc, that someone not living in my head would need.

 

[julidrevezzo]

I just had one published in a small ezine. So, yeah, from time to time I still delve into them.

 

[Chessie]

I love short stories! I love writing and reading them. They are especially great for a quick literary fix. I find them helpful to get creative juices flowing, as well.

 

[Anders Ämting]

I can't write short stories reliably. I've had maybe two good ideas for short stories in the last ten years, but otherwise my brain just isn't wired for short-term narratives. Every good idea I get immediately super-novas into a damn franchise.