Honest question for writers. What about doing short stories, combine them to make a collection and pitch that first? Is this harder or easier in the writing field?
As a hack writer…short stories are harder than novels, because a novel is long enough so you can make mistakes. You have to a disciplined, practiced, and precise writer for short stories. Ray Bradbury’s famous advice for writers is “Don’t Think!”, and novels give you the space and time to get lost in what you’re doing, while short stories that you want to publish are worry holes to fall down in. I tend to grind to an hault with rewrites. (Short stories are good to practice with, though; just assume most of what you produce won’t see the light of day. I usually use short stories to take breaks from one of my 3 first novels. Hey, I said I was a hack)
Short stories are easier to write for practice but, for the reasons Billy said, are much harder to do correctly, and thus much harder to get published. Short story collections are VERY hard to get published. There’s a lot of competition because they’re quicker to write, after all. I’d also recommend that if you have a short story idea you like, write it for practice, then do other things, then go back and rewrite it. (I too struggle with rewrites, and sometimes I hit a wall writing one project and switch to another. I should go back to one of my old ones and finish it…)
Writing short stories vs writing novels are as different as being a pastry chef vs being a sous chef. They may work in the same kitchen, but they’re different skill sets. As mentioned above, there’s a lot of competition in the short story field, which is a very narrow field to start with, and getting narrower all the time with the death of the print magazine. It’s just not a hugely popular genre, at least not if you’re not already well established as a writing.
Writing is a pain in the butt, but sometimes, it’s fun. No, I’m not published, and no, I probably won’t ever be, but I have 5 stories in the pipeline that I’m working on.
(For the record, when I get writer’s block on one, I open another. Last two weeks, I’ve been blocked across all 5 and I refuse to open a sixth.)
I want to write. But yeah, it’s pretty hard to get momentum going on a good story. I have, like, fifty stories on my OneDrive just waiting to have their drafts finished.
I really hope we have a story ark with Val taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 60,000 words in 30 days is the challenge, saying you got it done at the end is the reward.
I’m an aspiring writer myself, and it is hard as heck.
To be fair, it is a LOT easier to say than do.
Honest question for writers. What about doing short stories, combine them to make a collection and pitch that first? Is this harder or easier in the writing field?
As a hack writer…short stories are harder than novels, because a novel is long enough so you can make mistakes. You have to a disciplined, practiced, and precise writer for short stories. Ray Bradbury’s famous advice for writers is “Don’t Think!”, and novels give you the space and time to get lost in what you’re doing, while short stories that you want to publish are worry holes to fall down in. I tend to grind to an hault with rewrites. (Short stories are good to practice with, though; just assume most of what you produce won’t see the light of day. I usually use short stories to take breaks from one of my 3 first novels. Hey, I said I was a hack)
Short stories are easier to write for practice but, for the reasons Billy said, are much harder to do correctly, and thus much harder to get published. Short story collections are VERY hard to get published. There’s a lot of competition because they’re quicker to write, after all. I’d also recommend that if you have a short story idea you like, write it for practice, then do other things, then go back and rewrite it. (I too struggle with rewrites, and sometimes I hit a wall writing one project and switch to another. I should go back to one of my old ones and finish it…)
Writing short stories vs writing novels are as different as being a pastry chef vs being a sous chef. They may work in the same kitchen, but they’re different skill sets. As mentioned above, there’s a lot of competition in the short story field, which is a very narrow field to start with, and getting narrower all the time with the death of the print magazine. It’s just not a hugely popular genre, at least not if you’re not already well established as a writing.
Writing is a pain in the butt, but sometimes, it’s fun. No, I’m not published, and no, I probably won’t ever be, but I have 5 stories in the pipeline that I’m working on.
(For the record, when I get writer’s block on one, I open another. Last two weeks, I’ve been blocked across all 5 and I refuse to open a sixth.)
I want to write. But yeah, it’s pretty hard to get momentum going on a good story. I have, like, fifty stories on my OneDrive just waiting to have their drafts finished.
I really hope we have a story ark with Val taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 60,000 words in 30 days is the challenge, saying you got it done at the end is the reward.