I've always liked short stories, but I never really understood them. I do know that they’re hard to write, harder in some ways than full-length novels. You can't afford to faff around in a short story. Every word has to earn its place, recalling the Mark Twain quote about not having time to write a short letter, so he wrote a long one instead.
Having now successfully used my quiet time during the pandemic to learn how to fold a fitted sheet, I thought I might devote the rest of our long wait for a miracle cure to learning how to do short stories.
Degree of difficulty = similar.
Long term usefulness? To be confirmed.
It would at least let me return to some earlier series like the Disappearance and Dave vs the Monsters without having to commit to the full court press of writing a novel.
For instance, I've long had an idea for a Christmas story involving Dave and Threshy, but I could never justify the time involved in doing even a short e-book. A short story, however, a couple of thousand words? Yeah I can probably manage that.
I figure I can work out the process over on my Patreon page where anybody who wants to learn how to write them can just follow along with me. But I’ll drop some of the finished work over here a little bit later on as well. I like the idea of giving away short stories as a promo tool.
If anybody has any ideas for shorts they'd like to read from series I haven't visited in a couple of years, just let me know. I reckon one of the hardest things about this particular written form is coming up with good ideas in the first place.
I like short stories. I suspect that the internet might have stunted my ability to persevere with long-form reads: a "couple of thousand words" is about the length of a long-form blog or news article, and about the limit of what you can get through in a single scrolling page on the web.
I reckon that if you started writing them and publishing them in some sort of low-resistance fashion, you'd probably go viral, and start a new wave of culture. That would be cool.
Well you know what your Authorcrush Stephen King said about short stories "A short story is a different thing all together – a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger." Which if its a King story, would be creepy/terrifying.
As for ideas, what about lifting some from "felafel" and maybe embellishing them a little? Otherwise how bout some Cruel Stars back stories? That would certainly float my starboat!
Go re-visit Asimov, he is the master of short stories. Guess that was a product of the times and writing for SF mags. I have a bunch of books that are collections of his short stories. He has a very distinctive style, and yes no word goes to waste
For the last couple of years I have been writing magazine articles between 300 and 2000 words. The shorter they are, the more time they seem to take (proportionally) to get the balance right. They are particularly tricky when ghostwriting in someone else's voice.
As you say - every word has to earn its place. And the idea has to be solid.
Right now I have 3 deadlines looming. No real clue on the longer ones just yet but, fortunately, I have the shorter one sussed. I'm waiting for the 'ahah' moments to come for the big ones. Then, it's churn time.
I like short stories. I suspect that the internet might have stunted my ability to persevere with long-form reads: a "couple of thousand words" is about the length of a long-form blog or news article, and about the limit of what you can get through in a single scrolling page on the web.
I reckon that if you started writing them and publishing them in some sort of low-resistance fashion, you'd probably go viral, and start a new wave of culture. That would be cool.
Well you know what your Authorcrush Stephen King said about short stories "A short story is a different thing all together – a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger." Which if its a King story, would be creepy/terrifying.
As for ideas, what about lifting some from "felafel" and maybe embellishing them a little? Otherwise how bout some Cruel Stars back stories? That would certainly float my starboat!
Go re-visit Asimov, he is the master of short stories. Guess that was a product of the times and writing for SF mags. I have a bunch of books that are collections of his short stories. He has a very distinctive style, and yes no word goes to waste
For the last couple of years I have been writing magazine articles between 300 and 2000 words. The shorter they are, the more time they seem to take (proportionally) to get the balance right. They are particularly tricky when ghostwriting in someone else's voice.
As you say - every word has to earn its place. And the idea has to be solid.
Right now I have 3 deadlines looming. No real clue on the longer ones just yet but, fortunately, I have the shorter one sussed. I'm waiting for the 'ahah' moments to come for the big ones. Then, it's churn time.
Done deal.