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What to write: novels or short stories?

6/2/2012

10 Comments

 
Maybe I am fortunate that the majority of the writing ideas that come to me are in the format of short stories. I think this is because I tend to have less patience for the longer works. If I can tell a story in 5,000 words I just find it very hard and tedious to expand this to 50,000. It’s just not in my nature. However, I have had a few ideas to write stories that would have easily grown into the writing length of what would classify as a novel (40,000 or more words). Nevertheless, as a beginning writer, when it comes to choosing whether to write novels or short stories, I have decided to take the advice of Ray Bradbury who, early in his career, used to say: I am a sprinter not a long-distance runner.

A novel is a very risky enterprise for a new writer because of the length of time it takes to write one and the chance that it will not be good or sell well, whereas the short story format diminishes these risks. I may add to Bradbury's advice that this is especially true if you are a beginning writer who will self-publish his/her own work. If you are still learning the ropes and developing contacts, it is more prudent to reserve your more complex works for later on when you have the infrastructure and experience to support/promote them.

Unfortunately the current writing culture seems to be a novel-centric one. People who decide they want to be a writer tend to think in terms of writing a novel as though there weren’t other alternatives. Everyone talks about a writer’s debut novel, but you never hear anything about a writer’s debut book of short stories. Some websites that list the work of writers do not even have a category for short stories. My guess is that this is either because of reader demand (people like to read longer works with the same theme), or because the prevailing belief among writers is that what truly tests a writer’s mettle is a novel.

Be that as it may, I think that with a few exceptions most beginning writers (especially the ones that will self-publish) are better off setting more modest goals for their first efforts. I fear the current system is just pushing many authors who are not ready yet to invest a substantial amount of time and effort in putting out a novel, and many of these will crash and burn as a result of this. What do you think?


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10 Comments
JeriWB link
6/4/2012 05:44:01 am

Learning how to effectively craft a short story will only make a writer an even better novelist. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all the workshops I participated in for short stories and essay length literary nonfiction translates into a a well-written novel. Perhaps short stories get over-looked because most general readers experience them in the evirons of a classroom?

Reply
Rolando link
6/4/2012 10:16:49 am

Thanks for your comment Jeri. It could be the classroom thing or like I wrote it could be that readers don't like to switch from one unrelated story to another within a book. But like you wrote (and Ray Bradbury said) short stories will train you to be a novelist. Just proceed with caution.

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TheJotter link
6/18/2012 12:26:26 pm

Some of my favorite works are the short stories of authors. They are often much crisper. Agree, one should start with short stories...but that's an easy opinion for me.

Reply
Rolando link
6/18/2012 12:41:12 pm

I am convinced it is the best thing to do. Thanks for your comment Jotter! : ^ )

Reply
Kay Fey link
11/24/2012 10:55:38 am

I agree and learned this advice, thankfully, early in my writing 'career'. And it's a good thing too! Had I not decided to work on short stories first, I don't believe I would have published the amount of works I have now. And my computer and desk files are filled to the brim with 'false-start' novel drafts. I only recently worked on AND completed a novel first draft because of the experience and stamina I built up by writing short stories.

Reply
Rolando link
11/24/2012 12:05:09 pm

Thanks for your comment Kay. It is good to hear about someone that has benefited from this advice early in their career. Although I think the advice is sound, the drawback of short stories is that (as I have been learning) there is a reduced market for them. I guess there is always a catch. Whichever way one goes, patience is key. Most new authors will take a long time to develop a fan base whether they are writing short stories or novels.

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Larry Crane link
11/29/2012 03:11:27 am

The beginning of my semi-serious study of the craft started with correspondence courses from the U of iowa Writing Program. And these all involved reading short stories, analyzing them, and then trying my hand at them. From that experience I concluded their was a natural progression from short stories to longer works, and that "everyone" more or less accepted that. Seems it is not the case.

Reply
Rolando link
11/29/2012 07:09:07 am

Thanks for your comment Larrry. That is my concern. People who have never written anything for publication are not following this progression. It seems that the meme that has been fixed in the public consciousness is that when you take up writing you write a novel.

Reply
Chrys Fey link
12/16/2012 02:28:09 am

I am completely opposite. I find it much easier to write novel-length stories. For me, short stories are a challenge. I just can't seem to develop ideas that can be 5,000 words or less. For years, I had the firm belief that writing short stories just weren’t in my capability until one day I got an idea for one. Since then, I have written several that I am trying to publish to build my writing credentials, but as you said in an earlier comment I am also finding that there isn't much of a market for them.

Reply
Rolando link
12/16/2012 03:40:38 am

Thanks for your comment Chrys. You make a good point. Some people like you get writing ideas that can only be properly expressed in the length of a novel. However, I have found that several writers extend their works on purpose introducing a lot of fill in material and making an emphasis on abundant showing over telling when there is really no need (from the vantage point of the story) to do so. Maybe one of the reasons is the market for short stories. These writers may reason that if they can upgrade a short story to a novella or a novel it will sell better.

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