Craft Chat The benefits of writing short stories....

[LJ Beck]

Hi Everyone, I had to share.

I was lucky enough to hear @Lee Murray talk to a writing group in NZ tonight about the advantages of writing short stories and tips for it. Ah, it was brilliant!! I've only played around with short stories a little, but I'm so fired up after Lee's talk to give them another go! Thanks Lee!

Lee had a bunch of excellent benefits to writing short stories. Loads I'd never even considered. @AgentPete maybe we can talk Lee into sharing with Litopia... ?? (80 short stories published btw!)

For everyone... do you write short stories? And if you do, what do you enjoy about writing them?

 

[Sedayne]

Hi @LJ Beck

After spending the last few years on novel-length fiction, I've been trying my hand at short stories as well as flash fiction and poetry. It feels like a whole other discipline, and I'm learning a lot. So far, I've completed four short stories that I am happy with (a few others didn't really come to anything). What I've found, is that if the idea is good enough, the writing comes easily, but it fails if my idea is half-baked or weak. So more of my time is needed thinking the story through before I write it.

I've recently watched two good seminars from Jane Rogers and Margaret Wilkinson, and I learned a lot - that you need to hit the story running, set the scene with minimum fuss (very few words), have less plot and more uncertainty, concentrate on character, atmosphere and tone, focus on pace, start late and end early.
I would love to see a Lee Murray seminar on Litopia.

 

[Claire G]

I used to be intimidated by the thought of trying to make an impact in so few words but I absolutely love writing short stories now. It's a totally different discipline. I can get away with stylistic choices that would be too much for many readers across a full-length novel, e.g. writing in second person. I'd love to hear Lee talk!

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

In between full length novel writing, or when taking a break before an edit, I like to play around with flash or very short stories (up to 1000 words). It's a good fun way to try out ideas and language and style. I've managed to get two published (one of which was runner up in a 750 word story comp), so they give me the occasional boost of confidence. Another advantage is short means easy to go back and edit or try e.g. the whole thing in another tense/age target/POV. Perhaps it's like a pianist playing with scales and arpeggios. I too would love to hear a Lee Murray seminar.

 

[Sedayne]

Perhaps it's like a pianist playing with scales and arpeggios

Yes - it really feels like good exercise. A great way to hone craft.