Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer?

[TheCrusher]

Is it a "must do" for an aspiring writer to start his "quest" with short stories?

I've read a LOT of interviews with most of the best writers on the market at this moment and most of them (80% maybe) have said that they started getting known on the market by publishing their short stories in different anthologies and/or online dedicated websites.

So what about if a wannabe writer is not that good at writing short stories? He lacks the skills/ideas for one but maybe (just maybe) he has a damn good idea for a book/series?

Should he pursue his idea and write his book/series or should he start learning how to create short stories? (write a lot of anything, workshops, read other writers short stories, join a writers' group, trial and error?)

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

I would say write what you want to write. Short stories are not the same kind of writing as books, anyway. There's no guarantee that learning to write short stories would help you to write your book. Go for it!

 

[alchemist]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

Yup, write what you want. But I would recommend trying some shorts. If nothing else, getting one or two published would be a handy confidence boost. And you need something to do in the downtime between drafts of the magnum opus.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

Just as a note of possible interest, Samuel R. Delany had published quite a few novels before he published his first short story.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

I am rubbish at shorts, i can't get to know the character in them. I started with a trilogy which is three quarters complete now and then did a standalone. Whether they're any good is a moot point; they are better than any short i have ever written. Write what your bent is unless you super want to get published, in which case write to the market.

Btw i wouldn't recommend starting with a series -- it was very hard to manage and i didn't entirely do it the justice i would now, or in ten years time

 

[Kissmequick]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

Nope

Used to be a handy way to get into it, but short story markets aren't what they were, and plus writing a short story, while it uses some of the same skills (prose etc) is a different animal. I've never sold a short.

That said, if you CAN sell a short, it'll look good on your bio. But what sells your novel is...your novel.

 

[Tecdavid]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

They're a great way to try refining a few skills, but I wouldn't say they're something you need to attempt. If you don't want to write short stories, then... well, there's little to learn from projects you have no care for, in writing. It's like the others say - write what you want to write. Short stories are something to keep in mind if you want to try a new genre, or writing style, without writing several hundred pages, though.

 

[allmywires]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

Like springs, I just can't do short stories. They end up growing beyond all sensible control and my natural talent for tangling plotlines like a ball of yarn takes over...

Write the story you want to write, how you want to write it. Rules are there to be broken, amirite?

 

[Glisterspeck]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

I've recently been taken with the idea of writing novellas. They seem long enough to develop a character and long enough to sell as an ebook. I fell into thinking, several years ago, that I'd do just what you suggest, take some time away from my WIP novel to write some shorts and get them published. I ended up with an abandoned WIP, three unpublished shorts, and three more shorts that grew I into new, unfinished, WIP novels. Ugh.

 

[Mirannan]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

In my admittedly very limited experience, short stories (and even more so short shorts, which IIRC are usually defined as less than 700 words or so) are a very good training for carving the fat out of your text. I might also add that many authors, including some who have sold lots of books (yes, David Eddings's ghost, I'm looking at you!) could really use some such practice.

On a somewhat related subject, I've done a reasonably large amount of commercial writing - commercial in the sense of writing text which has the purpose of selling a product. It really is quite remarkable how possible it is to contract a piece that takes up a couple of pages of A4 into something that fits on one page - without fiddling with font sizes or compromising the message. Actually doing it is very hard work indeed. I said "possible", not "easy".

(I was producing the material for use in my own business.)

"I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short" — Blaise Pascal

 

[Hex]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

I agree with Mirannan on this -- I found it really helpful to write shorts but I do it between edits/ longer wips, not when I'm in the middle of writing something else.

I've said this before (many, many times) but I struggle with structuring stories, especially with making the conclusion satisfying, and what I now know about structure, I learned from writing short stories.

I will also say that when I see queries etc. it always makes me take something more seriously when I see additional credentials -- like manuscripts having won prizes or the author having been published elsewhere. I imagine it also causes agents to pause for a second or two and perhaps read the sample pages a little more optimistically. That's probably all, though.

I do think writing shorts is a way to attract interest/ readers for your longer stuff but you have to have some longer stuff to attract them to for that to work!

It is tricky to switch between shorts and longer stuff but I have found it helpful in improving my writing overall (which isn't to say I think everyone should do it).

 

[Mouse]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

I started short stories because I read some Neil Gaiman ones and thought 'I fancy having a go at that.' Before I tried it, I also thought 'I can't do it.' But you know, it's really not that hard. I sold the first one I wrote to the first place I sent it to.

I don't know whether they've helped improve my writing or not. Probably. Everything does, doesn't it? But I've not done any for over a year now cos I've been working on my longer stuff.

They're fun to do though and if you get any published it's very satisfying.

I don't really know whether agents give a toss if you've had short stories published, but maybe it shows them that at least one editor has thought you were good enough.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

I do write them, btw, I probably have about twenty in varying states, and I quite enjoy writing them. It's that I don't think they're very good. Certainly not good enough to submit anywhere. What tends to happen is the idea won't go away and then it extends into a novel or gets used in one somewhere. If that's the case, it will often keep its original shape.

The crit I had up recently, the storytelling one, was originally a short of about 8000 words giving the back story of a character in the Abendau books (Rjala). I loved the story, and the forests described, and the whole arc of it, but it would take loads of work to bring it anywhere close to the level needed, and, I dunno, I quite like where it's ended up.

In terms of structure, they are useful for learning that, although I quite like writing multi-tiered stories that slot together over a range of storylines, and that's not as easy to do in a short.

 

[Brev]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

Being a successful short story writer takes the same levels of commitment, determination, talent and time as being a novelist. There are no guarantees in either path, but there are many transferable skills. Write what love and give it your full attention.

 

[Dozmonic]

Re: Short stories - a must do or recommended first steps on becoming a skilled writer

Writing short stories isn't necessary. The only necessary thing is writing a lot. Short stories can help with that, but they're never necessary.