One solution to writing short stories for the natural novelist
Posted by Fritz. in Chronicles from the Nexus, Novel, Short Story, WritingI just replied to an email from a friend who is also a writer, and she was saying that she struggled with writing short stories, or, more accurately, short-short stories. I admitted that I had this problem, too. Which is interesting, as I have spent the last year and half writing short stories rather than polishing up my novel and starting in on the sequel. In this time I have written, in order, a novelette, novella, novella, novella, novelette, short, novelette, novella, short, and am working on a short now (and even the fact that this is a short story is a choice that I forced on myself, as the overall story arc is really more like a novella). I plan on writing a short next.
The reason for focusing on short stories was, in part, following the advice that I had received from a number of quarters that writing short stories would further my writing carreer, both from a practice and a “get your name out there” perspectives (although I am just starting to really shop the stories around).
The thing is, I’ve cheated. All but one of the stories above share the same world, frequently have overlapping characters, plots, and settings. Which is like writing various parts of one big novel. More or less. This is not so very surprising as 99% of the ideas I have are about this world. This predilection also reflects one of the things I was, and still am, really attracted to as a reader. Series. I grew up reading the likes of Doc Savage, Perry Rhodan, Dray Prescot, and many others. More recently I have been following Iain Banks‘ Culture novels with great relish, so obviously, I haven’t gotten it out of my system yet.
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