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Wouldn't you want to make a short story to see if you have the right stuff?

Ralavik

Acolyte
I hear that if you want to do short stories, it isn't quite the same as if you're doing novels and that they should be practiced separately. However, doesn't it make sense for someone who is testing the water to do a short story first, to see if it garners interest? Why waste time with a novel, unless short stories are, by their nature, harder to get published than novels are for this very reasoning.
 
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Filk

Troubadour
I believe you can go either way. The novel I am working on developed out of a short story I wrote years ago. Writing a short story is a quick method of testing your mettle; I always find endings difficult. Writing a novel is a huge task, but writing that much will develop your skills as a writer and author. I wouldn't call it a waste of time hehe.

Go ahead and write a few short stories. Write a few dozen. If that will get you motivated, then why not? If you have a good idea for a novel, then why not take the plunge now? Write both at the same time.

Sorry for the ambiguous answer, but my advice would be to follow whatever you're feeling. Don't worry about getting published so much as worry about writing a good story.
 
Short stories aren't necessarily easier the produce than novels. I personally have a hard time coming up with short stories since I can't seem to think in short narratives.

I think it comes down to playing to your strenghts as a writer. If you're good at writing short stories, then by all means, write them. Just, that doesn't suit everyone.
 

Jabrosky

Banned
Short stories aren't necessarily easier the produce than novels. I personally have a hard time coming up with short stories since I can't seem to think in short narratives.
I myself have found that some stories can't be condensed into short form without omitting a lot of information that readers want to know. For example, I might write a short story, and even if I'm satisfied with its length, my viewer say that I tell too much and show too little and that I should expand more on certain elements.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Just because a person can write a good short story doesn't mean they can write a good novel. And just because someone can write a good novel doesn't mean they're good at writing short stories.

Also just because a short story is good doesn't mean it translates well into a novel. Short stories usually explore a single idea. A novel requires tons of ideas. That is why they are considered different. It has nothing to do with testing the waters to see if there's interest in a product, because they're different products.
 
I myself have found that some stories can't be condensed into short form without omitting a lot of information that readers want to know. For example, I might write a short story, and even if I'm satisfied with its length, my viewer say that I tell too much and show too little and that I should expand more on certain elements.

To me it's a question of structure. It's not like I can't fit all the info I need into a short story once I've formulated it, but I'm too used to think in acts and character arcs.
 

Jamber

Sage
They're two different skill sets, there's less of a market for short stories, they don't pay (whereas a novel might), and you'd be giving your idea away, but feel free to do it -- you might pick up some interested followers if the story was gripping and you gave it away as a tempter on your blog.

regards
Jennie
 
The thing we're leaving out is that a short story is a precision test of our ability to find and follow an idea. Each time you do a short, you strain yourself to make this thing work on its own terms-- and then you can finish the story in a week or a day and start the next with both confidence and a full lesson learned. It's not the same lessons you learn from novels, but you learn them much faster.

A novel takes not only skills (some different, some the same), it also takes practice with those skills to keep our minds open on the hundredth time that knight searches the forest, or tries to speak to someone in his proper style. You could compare that kind of writing to a soldier being ready to fight for his life after days of hard marching, or a theater actor able to do all his lines, with proper passion, no matter what the tour's done to him this time. It's hard to get that kind of seasoning from anything but a novel or two under your belt, but it's also hard to learn anything fast from it.

They're different, in a lot of ways. But one of those differences is still that you can learn much faster--at some things--by starting with short stories.
 
The thing we're leaving out is that a short story is a precision test of our ability to find and follow an idea. Each time you do a short, you strain yourself to make this thing work on its own terms-- and then you can finish the story in a week or a day and start the next with both confidence and a full lesson learned. It's not the same lessons you learn from novels, but you learn them much faster.

You have to finish a story order to learn from it?

This makes me wonder, what's the rate here? Like, how many short stories is a novel worth is terms of lessons learned?

A novel takes not only skills (some different, some the same), it also takes practice with those skills to keep our minds open on the hundredth time that knight searches the forest, or tries to speak to someone in his proper style. You could compare that kind of writing to a soldier being ready to fight for his life after days of hard marching, or a theater actor able to do all his lines, with proper passion, no matter what the tour's done to him this time. It's hard to get that kind of seasoning from anything but a novel or two under your belt, but it's also hard to learn anything fast from it.

I... honestly didn't get any of that, sorry.
 

SeverinR

Vala
Short stories give you feed back faster, and doesn't take as long to finish. Its also easier to get feedback if the commitment of time isn't that great. 1000 words versus 20000 words.
Thats why I don't usually submit more then a scene or a chapter for feedback.

Short stories are a different format and style, so being good at one doesn't mean you're good at the other.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Oh how I'd love to be able to write on purpose!

I'm afraid I start writing a story and it it's just going to be a story. As I go along, this one seems to be pretty short and that one keeps going and going. Eventually I do a word count and christen it: novelette!
 
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