Michael Potts's Blog: Bits and Pieces: Book Reviews and Articles on Writing, Horror Fiction, and Some Philosophy - Posts Tagged "novels"
Writing: Short Story or Novel?
Beginning writers sometimes wonder about the best route to take in their prose fiction. Should they write short stories? Flash fiction? Novellas? Novels? All of these?
It is probably useful to start with the short story since that is a quicker way to learn plotting, characterization, theme, style, and other aspects of the craft of writing. Short stories also offer self-contained packets for critique groups--each member can evaluate a whole work by you rather than one chapter at a time of a novel.
My advice for writers who are beyond the beginner stage is to write novels. One ironic fact of writing is that novels, while much longer than short stories, are easier to write. You cannot afford errors in a short story--the plot and characterization must be near-perfect to have any chance at publication. In a novel, you can afford a few errors, but your goal should always be to have none. That is not possible for a lenghty work, but make the novel as good as possible before sending it out. Have someone who is a skilled writer critique your novel; then make final revisions. Then you have options: you can try to find an agent, search for a small press to publish the novel, or self-publish. Novels will net you a profit with each sale, and you will have a book of which you can be proud.
This does not mean you should abandon the short story. I do not, however, recommend your writing a novella. Markets are there, but they are few and far-between. Stephen King has several novellas published, but he is Stephen King, and you are not. I usually like to write short stories for anthologies since they have themes, and if a theme fits the kind of story I enjoy writing, I'll take the time to write a short story. If it is accepted and you are in a quality anthology, your name could be listed in the Table of Contents with well-known writers in your genre. That can do nothing but help you.
I mainly focus on novels now, but every few months I submit a short story to an anthology. You do not have to follow my advice--perhaps you only enjoy writing short stories. If you are happy with that, work on your craft, on your storytelling skills, and send out short stories. If you discover how tight the market for short stories is, then you might reconsider and write a novel.
It is probably useful to start with the short story since that is a quicker way to learn plotting, characterization, theme, style, and other aspects of the craft of writing. Short stories also offer self-contained packets for critique groups--each member can evaluate a whole work by you rather than one chapter at a time of a novel.
My advice for writers who are beyond the beginner stage is to write novels. One ironic fact of writing is that novels, while much longer than short stories, are easier to write. You cannot afford errors in a short story--the plot and characterization must be near-perfect to have any chance at publication. In a novel, you can afford a few errors, but your goal should always be to have none. That is not possible for a lenghty work, but make the novel as good as possible before sending it out. Have someone who is a skilled writer critique your novel; then make final revisions. Then you have options: you can try to find an agent, search for a small press to publish the novel, or self-publish. Novels will net you a profit with each sale, and you will have a book of which you can be proud.
This does not mean you should abandon the short story. I do not, however, recommend your writing a novella. Markets are there, but they are few and far-between. Stephen King has several novellas published, but he is Stephen King, and you are not. I usually like to write short stories for anthologies since they have themes, and if a theme fits the kind of story I enjoy writing, I'll take the time to write a short story. If it is accepted and you are in a quality anthology, your name could be listed in the Table of Contents with well-known writers in your genre. That can do nothing but help you.
I mainly focus on novels now, but every few months I submit a short story to an anthology. You do not have to follow my advice--perhaps you only enjoy writing short stories. If you are happy with that, work on your craft, on your storytelling skills, and send out short stories. If you discover how tight the market for short stories is, then you might reconsider and write a novel.
Bits and Pieces: Book Reviews and Articles on Writing, Horror Fiction, and Some Philosophy
The blog of Michael Potts, writer of Southern fiction, horror fiction, and poetry.
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