For the new writer looking to start out, you will be bombarded with advice the moment you say, "I want to write a book". Some of it will be from people who don't know the first thing about story crafting. "Oh, you should do this, this, and this. That'll make a great story." Or "Why would you want to do that? Authors don't earn enough to sustain themselves." Some of it will be from other writers. "Don't use adverbs. Adverbs are bad." Or "Start with a short story first. Ease yourself into writing by starting out short then transition into something longer." The idea behind starting out short is that shorter is an easier story format to manage.
What's the misconception here?
Short stories are easy because they are short.
How is that a misconception?
Like novels, poetry, and flash fiction, Short stories have their own constraints. The story has to be told within a certain amount of words/pages. The goals of the characters are condensed. There can be no cliffhangers. The writer is limited to a certain number of characters.
It can also be harder to transition from writing a shorter story to a longer one without adding a bunch of information dumps - nothing wrong with those except for they're often tedious to read - and page after page of useless action that doesn't do much for the plot.
My high school had certain English requirements for all students. One class was called Short Stories, in which we learned about the characteristics unique to short stories, characteristics set forth by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and Edgar Allen Poe. For that class, we were assigned to write a short story. We weren't allowed to go over 3000 words.
I kept wanting to go over.
Short stories are not for every writer, just like novels are not for every writer.
My advice: If you want to start writing, find out what kind of story you want to tell. Not just in terms of genre but in terms of length. Learn the nuances, and always challenge yourself to learn more.
Coming Up: An excerpt from my soon-to-be published novella and Why I Like the Big Bang Theory.
What's the misconception here?
Short stories are easy because they are short.
How is that a misconception?
Like novels, poetry, and flash fiction, Short stories have their own constraints. The story has to be told within a certain amount of words/pages. The goals of the characters are condensed. There can be no cliffhangers. The writer is limited to a certain number of characters.
It can also be harder to transition from writing a shorter story to a longer one without adding a bunch of information dumps - nothing wrong with those except for they're often tedious to read - and page after page of useless action that doesn't do much for the plot.
My high school had certain English requirements for all students. One class was called Short Stories, in which we learned about the characteristics unique to short stories, characteristics set forth by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and Edgar Allen Poe. For that class, we were assigned to write a short story. We weren't allowed to go over 3000 words.
I kept wanting to go over.
Short stories are not for every writer, just like novels are not for every writer.
My advice: If you want to start writing, find out what kind of story you want to tell. Not just in terms of genre but in terms of length. Learn the nuances, and always challenge yourself to learn more.
Coming Up: An excerpt from my soon-to-be published novella and Why I Like the Big Bang Theory.