Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Short Story Conundrum


I’ve been writing short stories, which is a completely different experience for me. I’ve done flash fiction for years as a kind of daily warm-up for my novels, so you’d think upping the word count wouldn’t be that much of a difference, but it really is. With my novels I spend a great deal of time and effort on character development. I do personality studies, have pictures painted, go overboard, really. But I have to; I need them to be real to me so they will be real for my readers. Now for my flash fiction, I don’t do any of that. I just sit and write for a few minutes whatever pops in my head. Short stories should fall somewhere in the middle, right? But they don’t. I can’t justify the months I usually spend on getting to know a character whose story will be told in thirty pages or less. At the same time, though, it feels like I should do more than just sit and write. It’s a conundrum.  How about all of you—do you spend the same time prepping for short stories as you do your longer works?

7 comments:

  1. Actually, no. I've discovered I can outline and plan a short story in just a few days while a novel will take months to plan. Maybe I should write more short stories?
    You can do it, little camper!

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  2. I'm the same way, Melanie. I studied a man who takes the bus with me for months once, before writing just 2,000 words about him. I feel you!

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  3. I recently was asked to contribute to a flash fiction blog, the length being anything up to 2000 words. It's been a blast and surprisingly, just the challenge of it has increased my short story telling. (Because I used to SUCK at it, big time.) There's definitely an art to a short story, and I think the key is getting to the point where it's an intuitive feel. Some of those stories do have a longer life and can be written out further at a later date. The key is knowing where to curtail them.

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  4. I hope you're writing a short story for IWSG anthology. I haven't written a short story for a while. I always seem to have another project going on.

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  5. It used to take me a long time to do short stories, but these days, I've gotten better. It's taken years of practice and great tips from my local writing group.

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  6. I need to really see and understand the characters for all my work but it does not take me very long to flesh them out so I do the same amount of work no matter the story length.

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  7. It's hard for me to write short stories; in fact, a manuscript for a novel I wrote was originally supposed to be a short story, but I liked the characters so much that I kept writing. I think it's okay to take your time writing short stories, because then you can feel like you've fully said what you want to say about the characters.

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