Short Story Writing:
Practicing In Short

If you lack the time or gumption to be a novelist right off, start with short story writing. Not only will this give you practice at the craft of fiction, but it can add to your income at the same time.

Then, once you've got a few stories under your belt, you'll feel more confident in tackling a longer project.


The Long And Short Of It

Learning how to write a novel can take some time. Practice makes perfect. What better way to practice than to work in shorter form?

Though I rarely do short story writing, it can certainly help you learn the basics of fiction writing. Like novels, short stories require characters, plot and setting. Dialogue can be just as important or more so than in a full-length book. Every detail counts.

Short stories are built the same way novels are, too. They need a hook at the beginning, a compelling middle that barrels right to the climax and resolution. They follow the same story arc as a novel, just in abbreviated form.

One of the advantages of writing short fiction over long fiction is you are done much sooner. Having someone critique a short story is going to take less time, too. If you haven't got something right, the editing process will take considerably less time, as well.

That's not to say a short story is a piece of cake. It still takes thought and planning. In some ways, it's more difficult than novel writing.

For instance, instead of four hundred pages to plot to the climax, you have twenty. Or maybe only five. Your characters have to be understood quickly. You definitely need to write tighter, and convey a lot more information in a lot less time.

That can benefit your novel writing, too. By making you pick what details to include and not include more carefully.


How Much Is That Story In The Window?

The other advantage to short story writing is that you can make money on the side while you wait for your novel to be published.

Of course, you'll wait for your short story to be published sometimes, too, but it makes another stream of income to keep you going between novels.

Not only that, but once you have a collection of short stories, you can publish an anthology of them. Another book under your belt, with very little extra effort!

Certainly it's worth some time to explore shorter fiction, at least.


A Little Light Reading

As with any form of writing, learning short story writing will benefit from reading short stories, too. Read stories in the novel genre you plan to write in: fantasy, science fiction, romance, realistic and such. Then read some in other genres, too. You'll be amazed at the ideas that come to you from everything you read.

Then practice. Write about the characters you're considering for your novels. Write in the genre you favor. Branch out into genres you haven't tried. All of it makes good practice for novel writing.

I use shorter forms to write backgrounds for many of my characters in my novels. These stories may or may not be used (usually only in pieces) in some of my novels. But the better I know my characters, the better I can portray them in my novels.

Who knows? Someday, I may publish some of these back-stories and side-stories in collections about my fictional world, too. Fans of an author's works tend to like seeing anything and everything about the "world" the author writes about.

So, even if you are a novelist, it pays to practice shorter forms, too. Try short story writing. It can only make your novel writing improve.


Resources

This website is about how to write a novel. Not how to write a short story. Nonetheless, I felt it made sense to mention shorter fiction at least, as a method of honing your craft.

For those who'd like to learn more about short story writing and the markets for them, I recommend a subscription to Writer's Digest Magazine, and a yearly copy of the Novel & Short Story Writer's Market. Both have lots of articles on writing short fiction, selling short fiction and what markets are out there.

So, if short fiction is your cup of tea, I wish you fabulous luck!