Someone today opined on whether short stories are worth the effort vs writing and selling long forms. If I recall correctly, they said they found they'd wished they'd stuck with the long forms after years of experience.
Generally, I'd agree (I'm a novelist myself). But then I thought: /If I had not spent the last five years writing lots of shorts, and recently very short stories, I'd not have gotten the experience starting and completing stories the way I have./
Writing novelette length, short, and super-short has gone a long way to vanquishing my recurring writer's block. It's given me the repeated experience of starting and finishing stories, building my confidence that there's always more to write. (I burnt out in '01 and didn't start writing again until '15, so I'm recovering.)
One of the hardest things for me to get over, which plagued my early career, was my inflated opinion that my ideas were somehow special and unique (they're not), and that I would never come up with more than a few worth writing. Writing lots of little stories cured me of that delusion.
My little stories might never sell, but they could act as regular content to convince people to return to my author website. I use shorts to introduce people to my writing style and to explore ideas I might incorporate in longer forms. I've definitely used it to work out character backstory, even stuff that might contradict canon. It keeps me from fearing the experimental stuff; at least it gives me a chance to get the nonsense out of my bloodstream. Some of this might go into an anthology one day (as if, but I can hope.) In any case, they're the practice equivalent of tossing nickels and dimes into the wishing well compared to burning C-notes attempting a sketchy novel.
This isn't writing advice, nor am I advocating one way or another. I'm simply reporting what I've observed for myself.
#writing #author #writer #writers #writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon
RS, Author, Novelist /
npub1r5…k39wa
2023-09-27 04:37:10
Author Public Key
npub1r5fyvwr9tyt60j59u0gz4k496xy2gwsags4s9pehaw6pdr2u4eps4k39waPublished at
2023-09-27 04:37:10Event JSON
{
"id": "cdb16e6ad4a8c032067e035d0bb93633a3dd03930e19ee536c8d35d914036df8",
"pubkey": "1d124638655917a7ca85e3d02adaa5d188a43a1d442b028737ebb4168d5cae43",
"created_at": 1695789430,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"writing"
],
[
"t",
"author"
],
[
"t",
"writer"
],
[
"t",
"writers"
],
[
"t",
"writingcommunity"
],
[
"t",
"writersofmastodon"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://eldritch.cafe/users/sfwrtr/statuses/111135256104555926",
"activitypub"
]
],
"content": "Someone today opined on whether short stories are worth the effort vs writing and selling long forms. If I recall correctly, they said they found they'd wished they'd stuck with the long forms after years of experience. \n\nGenerally, I'd agree (I'm a novelist myself). But then I thought: /If I had not spent the last five years writing lots of shorts, and recently very short stories, I'd not have gotten the experience starting and completing stories the way I have./ \n\nWriting novelette length, short, and super-short has gone a long way to vanquishing my recurring writer's block. It's given me the repeated experience of starting and finishing stories, building my confidence that there's always more to write. (I burnt out in '01 and didn't start writing again until '15, so I'm recovering.) \n\nOne of the hardest things for me to get over, which plagued my early career, was my inflated opinion that my ideas were somehow special and unique (they're not), and that I would never come up with more than a few worth writing. Writing lots of little stories cured me of that delusion. \n\nMy little stories might never sell, but they could act as regular content to convince people to return to my author website. I use shorts to introduce people to my writing style and to explore ideas I might incorporate in longer forms. I've definitely used it to work out character backstory, even stuff that might contradict canon. It keeps me from fearing the experimental stuff; at least it gives me a chance to get the nonsense out of my bloodstream. Some of this might go into an anthology one day (as if, but I can hope.) In any case, they're the practice equivalent of tossing nickels and dimes into the wishing well compared to burning C-notes attempting a sketchy novel.\n\nThis isn't writing advice, nor am I advocating one way or another. I'm simply reporting what I've observed for myself.\n\n#writing #author #writer #writers #writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon",
"sig": "0ed864608e244664b810505f2782ff137bc8a983d877e35909daf3d222c524b382c02926e8cdf5616272471f61240ebac0ee13e8f807b4a55d618b10af21a26b"
}