Super Fantasy
Maester
Can a short story be divided into many short sections?
Or is a more formal approach needed?
Or is a more formal approach needed?
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Short story structure?
- Thread starter Super Fantasy
- Start date
What I like about short stories is the brevity of room to screw up. They are grad classes of you do you, and that's a lot of fun. The story itself will dictate the approach, and on experience can teach you how to do that with your stories. It's intimate, but that's process. I've used both of your examples, dividing and using a stiffer structure. They're both viable and eminently functional.
The only approach that I would consider unworkable is deciding you have Writer's Block and getting up from the keyboard. That does no one any good.
The only approach that I would consider unworkable is deciding you have Writer's Block and getting up from the keyboard. That does no one any good.
Prince of Spires
Istar
Depends how short your short story is. If you're going with flash-fiction short, which is around 300 words, then you only really get to make a single point. If you're leaning more towards novelette size (which is up to 15.000-ish words), then you can certainly have different sections.
In general, a short story will revolve around one idea, and usually be contained in both space and time. This means you're unlikely to have many (or any) sections.
I do agree with A. E. Lowan in that the story will dictate what is needed. I guess a great writer could even make a flash fiction piece have multiple sections. For mere mortal like me though that would be less likely.
In general, a short story will revolve around one idea, and usually be contained in both space and time. This means you're unlikely to have many (or any) sections.
I do agree with A. E. Lowan in that the story will dictate what is needed. I guess a great writer could even make a flash fiction piece have multiple sections. For mere mortal like me though that would be less likely.
Mad Swede
Auror
As A. E. Lowan said you can use both examples and it really depends on your story. Unless you're writing flash fiction you will have paragraphs, and in longer short stories you can have short chapters. The key thing about a short story is that it is short, so you generally only have one story arc and one major character arc. With that written, it is possible to have more than one story arc and more than one major character arc in a short story, but at that point your writing needs to be very tight indeed.
The single most ambitious thing I've ever written is a short story with two story arcs and five character arcs. It came it at just over 12000 words. I could see it in my mind as I wrote, I knew it would work. My editor loves it, but it's been going backwards and forwards between us for 10 months now because getting the prose to flow without losing the structure, dialogue, characterisation and details needed to support all those arcs has proved very difficult indeed. I keep thinking it's almost there...
The single most ambitious thing I've ever written is a short story with two story arcs and five character arcs. It came it at just over 12000 words. I could see it in my mind as I wrote, I knew it would work. My editor loves it, but it's been going backwards and forwards between us for 10 months now because getting the prose to flow without losing the structure, dialogue, characterisation and details needed to support all those arcs has proved very difficult indeed. I keep thinking it's almost there...
I learned a new da Vinci quote today that I need on a t-shirt to explain my entire life.
"Is anything really done?"
No. No, it's not. It can be presentable. It can be good. It can even be truly great, and it's still not done. Faerie Rising gives me the vapors and a desperate need for a red pen. It's deeply flawed. But even then, we've heard from 3 different readers so far that we'd nearly made them late to work, trying to finish in the car. Yeah, sometimes even flawed is liked.
And yes, do I live for notes like those!
dollyt8
Troubadour
Most of the short stories I've written were a single narrative in one section, though I've also done a couple short story series. I've never felt the need to be particularly "formal" with my short stories though.
pmmg
Myth Weaver
Since most of my scenes seem to fall in at between 700-1000 words, in an 8000 word short story, that would be 8-10 scenes. I am sure I can fit in several short sections, maybe even more than one POV, in that space.
Short Story really need definition, which will probably be elusive. I would define it as in the range of 8000 words, and has a conflict that resolves in that space. A short story still need to carry all the other elements of story though, plot, character, setting, theme... Missing any of those will probably show.
Formal approach or not is up to you. There is no such thing as the 'right' way to do it.
- Thread starter
- #8
Super Fantasy
Maester
Im going to try writing short stories for a year or two so i can gain experience for writing novels.
- Thread starter
- #9
Super Fantasy
Maester
Different short stories/different length and structure in my experience.
When it comes to short stories, it all depends on the scope of your idea. Chapters in a novel are really just a compilation of short stories put together in a story cycle. You're more or less asking yourself "What events do i need to happen in these pages" and then working the characters' actions around those story beats. When you got a story where "Hero defeats the big bad villain and saves the world", a lot can happen between point A to point B; but say you got a story where "Hero has a conversation with a spirit about healing his dying sister with a spell that can have dire consequences" then you have an example for a story that can have a more condensed narrative than what a novel can carry. Once you determine the scope of your idea, it will make it easier to figure out if what you have would work best as a short story.
Nighty_Knight
Troubadour
This is what I did. I feel it
working pretty good. I planned a short story and it ended up a 17k word novelette. Then the one I planned as a novelette turned into a 35k word novella. Both I liked and I feel I improved a lot with both as well.
TechnoHead5
Dreamer
I feel like short story is the perfect medium for single POV, condensed stories and your approach to gain experience through writing those is spot on.
When I started to work on my book, I took a long pause, wrote 4.5 short stories and came back to it with a completely different mindset.
When I started to work on my book, I took a long pause, wrote 4.5 short stories and came back to it with a completely different mindset.
- Thread starter
- #13
Super Fantasy
Maester
Short stories/easy to write.
Novels/much more difficult.
Novels/much more difficult.
- Thread starter
- #14
Super Fantasy
Maester
Novels are so much more complex, especially character creation and the ways the characters interact.
I feel this statement is a bit erroneous because it all depends on how you want to tell the story.
Sometimes short stories are quite difficult because you don't have a lot of words per page to delve deep into the story and you have to condense an entire plot into, possibly, just a few pages; for some, writing a novel is easier because you can take as much time as you want to explain things and expand upon things as slowly as you can.
It all just depends on the story itself.
Mad Swede
Auror
I think, Super Fantasy, that you need to write quite a lot more. I've written (and had published) both short stories and novels and in my experience short stories are the most difficult to write. That's because you have a very limited number of words in which to develop the characters and their interactions with others. In that sense I would suggest that you work on writing short stories, because if you can develop characters and their interactions successfully in a short story then you will also be able to do so in a novel. I find that the same applies to story arcs and setting descriptions - if you can get these right in a short story you'll be able to do it in a novel. In all this, please note that I first wrote short stories and only later did I turn to writing novels.
This is a tale of two short stories. I do my best work in long form. I was built for the novel. So, when I do write short, I still stuff in all of the complexity and conflict that my team brings out from our books.
This is "Waiting for Yesterday." It's one of our oldest pieces, and the first of ours to be published, here on Scribes. It's about 2400 words, written in a different register than I usually use, and I also think the POV character has some nice depth. Waiting for Yesterday – Myths Inscribed
And from our earliest short to our latest, this is, "Ashes Ashes." The anthology it appeared in was titled Fallen, and you can guess the chosen theme. https://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Dragon-Soul-Press-Anthology-ebook/dp/B0CSHHPT9K/ Our offering, clocking in at 6900 words, is about Ashentiel, an Angel of Battle, a General fighting a war that he's long ago forgotten the point of. He's also an alcoholic, and as he finds out in the first few pages, he's walking perilously close to the edge of a fall he can never come back from.
Yes, he's terrified.
And yes, he'd do it again, in a heartbeat.
Different lengths, different themes. One thing the short story can teach us is how to keep descriptions under control. I run pretty spare with descriptions. Some don't, either going overboard or barely describing anything at all. Descriptions are a wonderful tool for short story writing, though. You can pack a truly impressive amount of subtext into your setting and into secondary characters that can stand as statement to whatever theme you feel yourself drawn to.
This is "Waiting for Yesterday." It's one of our oldest pieces, and the first of ours to be published, here on Scribes. It's about 2400 words, written in a different register than I usually use, and I also think the POV character has some nice depth. Waiting for Yesterday – Myths Inscribed
And from our earliest short to our latest, this is, "Ashes Ashes." The anthology it appeared in was titled Fallen, and you can guess the chosen theme. https://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Dragon-Soul-Press-Anthology-ebook/dp/B0CSHHPT9K/ Our offering, clocking in at 6900 words, is about Ashentiel, an Angel of Battle, a General fighting a war that he's long ago forgotten the point of. He's also an alcoholic, and as he finds out in the first few pages, he's walking perilously close to the edge of a fall he can never come back from.
Yes, he's terrified.
And yes, he'd do it again, in a heartbeat.
Different lengths, different themes. One thing the short story can teach us is how to keep descriptions under control. I run pretty spare with descriptions. Some don't, either going overboard or barely describing anything at all. Descriptions are a wonderful tool for short story writing, though. You can pack a truly impressive amount of subtext into your setting and into secondary characters that can stand as statement to whatever theme you feel yourself drawn to.
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No. Maybe for you, but no, it's different for all writers. Short stories can be the most difficult to master. And a writer really has to have a real understanding of an entire range of experiences before they can put pen to paper.
It's all just process. Everyone has one, and it's unique unto the world. I can't wait to see my team's next one finished!
Prince of Spires
Istar
I think a short story both is and isn't easier to write, depending on how you look at it and what your constraints are.
They are easier for me for 2 main reasons.
- You only need a single idea or scene to write it. No 200 page storylines, no complex plotting. I can just think of a fun premise or idea on the bikeride home and write it down.
- They're short. Obvious, I know. But what I mean is that a novel is a big commitment. It easily takes 100-200 hours to write a novel, and easily that again to edit the damn thing. 5.000 words takes 5-10 hours. I can do that in a week. It's nice and compact. Progress is obvious and fast. There's no sagging middle to worry about and so on.
They're hard because they're short. You can't waste a chapter looking at the scenery because the reader needs to understand something plot relevant about the flora and fauna or 2 pages digging into the romantic interests of a side character. And it's much harder to convey big ideas in low word counts. The corrupting influence of power is much easier to convey in a 5 book series where you can show the gradual decline of a character then in a 300 word flash-fiction piece.
Even more so if you give yourself a fixed wordcount. Just writing a story that's reasonably short is much easier than writing one that's between 4.000 and 6.000 words that you want to submit to a magazine.
They are easier for me for 2 main reasons.
- You only need a single idea or scene to write it. No 200 page storylines, no complex plotting. I can just think of a fun premise or idea on the bikeride home and write it down.
- They're short. Obvious, I know. But what I mean is that a novel is a big commitment. It easily takes 100-200 hours to write a novel, and easily that again to edit the damn thing. 5.000 words takes 5-10 hours. I can do that in a week. It's nice and compact. Progress is obvious and fast. There's no sagging middle to worry about and so on.
They're hard because they're short. You can't waste a chapter looking at the scenery because the reader needs to understand something plot relevant about the flora and fauna or 2 pages digging into the romantic interests of a side character. And it's much harder to convey big ideas in low word counts. The corrupting influence of power is much easier to convey in a 5 book series where you can show the gradual decline of a character then in a 300 word flash-fiction piece.
Even more so if you give yourself a fixed wordcount. Just writing a story that's reasonably short is much easier than writing one that's between 4.000 and 6.000 words that you want to submit to a magazine.
