Why Should Novelists Write Short Fiction?

[RedMage]

This got away from me, so I apologize if you find it a bit long. I do encourage you to read, especially if you're a novelist and don't or have not written much/any short fiction.

TLDR much of the writing advice out there encourages writers to write short fiction to learn the basics of writing and storytelling. Good advice, but I always hear that as coming from writers with a background of writing short fiction who are trying to convince novelists their way is better, or even an objective "best" for learning how to write and tell stories. As a novelist who later began to write short fiction, I wish I had started--or, at least, included--short fiction among my projects in my early writing career. The reason is this: the 2-3 lessons I learned by writing a novel over 18 months could have been learned in less than half the time by writing short fiction.

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I encounter this issue, this writing advice, over and over again in podcasts, YouTube vids and other writing advice and instructions. And I'm writing this because of the Writing Fantasy for Barbarians (Spotify link, but also on Audible and likely elsewhere) podcast episode I listened to this morning. Many writers write short fiction--short stories of 5k or 10k words, or flash fiction of 1k words, or even shorter. Yet, my understanding is that the vast majority of readers only read novels. Short fiction's heyday was the mid-twentieth century. It's been all novels and (largely) only novels for decades now. In my understanding...

So why should aspiring authors (traditional or self-pub) write short fiction? I began writing novels. Epic Fantasy trilogies! I was scared of short fiction, scared that I wouldn't be able to keep it short because the moment I put any work into my early ideas, they immediately expanded to the N-th degree. They became novels and series. Now, twenty years on, I have been trying my hand at short fiction for a number of years. I started slow about a decade ago and I've been totally open to short stories, flash and even microfiction for the past 5 or 6 years.

I wish I'd started sooner. Even back when I first began writing. I think I'd be a much better writer today if I had.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Well, I'm doing it now.

The thing about the writing advice/instructional stuff is that it/they include all the right words. That short fiction lets you learn all the stuff. They are saying the right things. But I always hear the podcaster/influencer/editor/whomever coming at it from the wrong direction. I interpret them as having the background of a short fiction writer trying to convince novelists that short fiction is best for learning the craft, both its basics and its more advanced intricacies. And I hear them declaring this as objective fact.

That's wrong. As a novelist who easily spends 18 months on a single novel--and several more years on a full trilogy or series--I was able to learn the basics just from the novels I wrote in my early writing career. But, here's the thing. 6 to 12 or even 18 months on a single novel seems about average for many writers. That's 70k - 120k words in the adult market scifi and fantasy genres. 60k - 90k for YA. And you might spend that entire novel focusing developing your skills in 2 or 3, or maybe a half dozen specific parts of the craft of writing and storytelling. I often spend 18 months on a novel, but a 5k short story? 1 week. A month to self-edit and by the end I'm sending it out for critique. And in those 5k words I'm focusing on developing those same skills I spent 18 months on in writing a novel.

So is short fiction objectively best for learning to write and tell stories? I do not think so. I don't think there is any "best", not objectively. There's only what works well for me, or even "better than ___". And, no, I wouldn't trade the years, the blood and sweat and tears I shed on my early novels, or any of my novels, to only write short fiction. However, I wish I had included short fiction among the projects I worked on in those year.

 

[Hobbit]

That's a nice thought, S.

My view based on what authors have told me is that writing short stories uses some quite different muscles to writing novels and vice versa; I have some authors tell me that they can write novels, but not short fiction, and vice versa, for that reason.

My view is that starting with short fiction is the best way: starting small and concise, building up in scale, complexity and ambition to the bigger stuff.

I'm also aware that such a view is where I come from, that when I first started reading SF etc most authors started with short fiction, publishing in the magazines or the small presses first before going out to the wider world.

But short stories generally do not sell to the general public. Magazines are declining. And things have changed with the proliferation of online publishing, tutorials and the like.

The opportunities are out there, more than ever before. The result of that is that there is much more material out there too. It can be difficult to find the new, the original, something different enough to be noticed.

The result I have noticed more in the last decade is that there's a lot of material out there that in the past wouldn't have been published, that needs work, that needs a good editor, a good and honest review before it has been published, that had the author done their groundwork would be better.

Not every author has to do this; there are many ways to be published, as well as many ways to write. But in order to sell I would suggest that a degree of adaptability is required and an ability to adapt too - and for most people that involves work.

Interested in what others may think.

 

[RedMage]

Thanks @Hobbit.

They are different beasts for certain! However, that doesn't mean the skills are not transferable. Rather, they can be transferred but must then be adapted to suit the length of story.

As a novelist, I enjoy writing detailed descriptions, be those of a setting or a character's physical appearance, as well as providing background and building up events from the inciting incident through a journey or investigation, all the way to the climax and resolution. That can be done to a degree in a short story, a little bit in a flash, and not at all in a microfiction. The shorter the story, the closer to the end the beginning must be.

I discussed this with a friend yesterday. She asked how a Romance genre short story, let alone flash or microfiction, might work? I don't read Romance, but according to her what readers want of that genre is the relationship between the characters. And that takes time to develop. Due to their word count limitations, short form fiction (short stories, flash and micro) don't allow for much development to take place. Development can happen, but not in the same way as in a long form (novel or novella) story.

But short stories generally do not sell to the general public. Magazines are declining. And things have changed with the proliferation of online publishing, tutorials and the like.

This is what I hear from my friends who are, primarily (and some strictly), short form writers. They tell me that the only readers of short fiction are the writers of short fiction who are researching that particular magazine and publisher so they can submit them a story that meets their editors' desires.

Personally, I read one or two scifi and/or fantasy anthologies each year. I'm drawn to them by the big names. I also read novellas written by my favorite authors and set in the same world as their novels. Or novella series, like Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children. But, mostly, I read novels. It's a struggle to find the multi-author anthologies, the magazines and single-author short story collections.

The opportunities are out there, more than ever before. The result of that is that there is much more material out there too. It can be difficult to find the new, the original, something different enough to be noticed.

The result I have noticed more in the last decade is that there's a lot of material out there that in the past wouldn't have been published, that needs work, that needs a good editor, a good and honest review before it has been published, that had the author done their groundwork would be better.

Not every author has to do this; there are many ways to be published, as well as many ways to write. But in order to sell I would suggest that a degree of adaptability is required and an ability to adapt too - and for most people that involves work.

The first part of this raises a question a friend recently asked me: does the quality of the writing mean as much to readers today as it did in the past?

I don't believe as many readers today care about the quality of the writing as the number of readers who cared about it in the past. I think today's readers prioritize the overall story above the author's technical writing skills. (To clarify, I'm referring to skills with grammar, tense and sentence construction. Also, the relationship pacing has to the text's reading level, the length of sentences and paragraphs and, even, the length of scenes and chapters.)

Personally, I pride myself on my storytelling and my technical writing skills. Sure, I have my blind spots, gaps and holes in my knowledge and experience where I need to put some work into developing my ability with X. And, in some cases, I simply need to learn about Y skill in the first place.

My primary online homes are here at SFFWorld and on a critique site. Over there, I have lots of friends who are putting in the work, going through multiple rounds of editing and revising and critique. They write the story, polish it, get a critique, revise and polish, get another critique to evaluate the quality of their revisions from the first critique round and... on and on until both the storytelling elements and their skills with the technical aspects of writing are at the level the writer wants them to be. However, I also encounter people who write the first draft, edit, immediately get critique, revise, then self-publish. They don't get the revision evaluated by critique partners.

Now, for some of these writers I interact with in this second group, they just want to share their stories. They aren't independently wealthy and they'd love to make some money, but that's not their goal. Yet, money--income sufficient to support a full time writing career--is the goal for others in this group. These writers don't believe the quality of their writing or storytelling ability impacts readers' decisions to either pick up their story initially nor to continue with it to the end. They believe the story itself is strong enough to carry readers from the first page to the last, and to bring them back for the sequel.

Honestly, I'd be very interested to see the results of a reader survey on this topic. Perhaps something conducted on one of the large social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, X/Twitter, or Bsky.

I've gone off topic. Rounding back... I suppose whether a writer chooses to learn and develop their technical writing skills or not is going to depend on the goal they have for their writing. As for whether to write short form or long form stories as a method of studying and developing those technical writing skills and storytelling skills, I can simply share my personal experience. As I said in the OP, I've now been writing for 20 years. It was only two or three years ago that I felt my technical writing skills were of a sufficient quality ("sufficient" is the keyword there) for traditional publishing. I queried a novel. I'm still not published. I don't have a publishing deal on the horizon or an agent. There are many criteria that affect traditional publishing and the choice of an agent, editor and publisher to work with a particular writer and publish this story or that. So, no, I have not thought for a second that my story and the skills I displayed in it with storytelling and/or my technical writing skills were to blame for the failure of my efforts.

Simply, I wonder if I might be in a different position today, if all my writing-related skills might be at a higher level than where they are had I spared any attention and effort on short fiction earlier in my 20 years of writing. Or, honestly, if I even put more effort into short fiction today.